A Beautiful, Unexpected Factor
by Infidel Pumpkin
Summary: What if Suzaku were naive? Unfortunately, it's true. What if Lelouch was affected? That'd probably happen. What if what Suzaku did could change both of their lives so dramatically, it could warp reality? It did. Suzalulu, AU, more info inside.
1. Prologue

Many people, somewhere in this world, may or may not ki ll me for this. Guess what? A month ago, I was studying the Suzalulu fan base, and found that surprisingly, there were _little to no_.......male pregnancy fics. Thanks for the gust of wind from all of the backspacing that just occurred, that should give me about a month's worth of air conditioning. I also apologize sincerely in advance if this fanfiction induces more of these impossible, ridiculous fictions in the world.

I am going to tell you off the bat that this fanfiction came mostly out of a personal bet, just to see if I could pull it off. I mean, the Code Geass universe is incredibly realistic and therefore left just about no windows for an author's liscence. Sure, it has its more serious moments (since I honestly can't write something without at least _something _deep/emotional), but I wrote this as if it was a plain ol' Suzalulu fic. I just fed the fluff with this plotline. I didn't want to simply bend Lelouch's gender either, even if it would have eased out the kinks that male pregnancy fics endure, because I would get confused calling him a her all the time and I'd rather at least preserve his gender.

So if anyone is still reading this at all, I hope someone out there will read my ridiculous fanfiction, and who knows, maybe even enjoy it. Leave me reviews too, those are nice, but I will simply not tolerate senseless flames. If you find many, many terrible things that need correcting in my writing, please tell me so in a sophisticated manner. Plus this is all in good fun anyway, mmkay?

**WARNINGS: THIS FANFICTION INCLUDES SPOILERS UP TO THE LAST EPISODE OF THE FIRST SEASON (meaning no R2).This fanfiction is AU (further evaluation will be given). This fanfiction is Suzalulu, meaning Suzaku x Lelouch, meaning slash. This fanfiction bends natural reality to the whims of my writing enjoyment. This fanfiction can be OOC at times, noticibly in this particular opening chapter, but I don't think it's too incredibly terrible after this. Oh, and there is no Geass or Black Knights or anything. I know, that kills a lot of the original storyline, but I don't like war.  
**

So now that that long Author's Note has been completed, assuming there's anyone left reading this, please do enjoy the first chapter to one of my first few Suzalulu multi-chapter fanfictions.

* * *

**Chapter One- Prologue**

The airport was extremely lonely that Friday morning.

"Such a thing asked of you so suddenly," Lelouch said, his voice trailing off as he averted his eyes from Suzaku's apologetic gaze.

Suzaku lifted his hand to caress his lover's face as they stood by the boarding exit. "It can't be helped, you know. I'm the idiot who chose to work for them." Lelouch smiled only slightly and flicked his eyes upward into Suzaku's before closing them and leaning into the cupped hand. Suzaku kissed him upon the forehead, and the two stayed this way until the final boarding call was made.

"I'll see you in a month, I suppose." Suzaku attempted to say with optimism, and Lelouch, too discontented to respond, tightened their embrace only slightly before uncoiling his arms from around Suzaku's neck; reaching for his lover's face yet again, his eyes solemn, he brushed his fingers against Suzaku's cheek only briefly before it moved out of reach. The Japanese boy slipped his hand down Lelouch's arm as he faded away, drifting into the narrow pathway.

Lelouch could only hold his hand up to his chest, having only just felt his lover's arms around him for the last time for at least a month's time away from him. "Don't get yourself hurt, Suzaku." He whispered to no one, and headed back toward the cabs to make his way back home, without him again.

* * *

The somber two weeks following Suzaku's sudden departure were the dullest fourteen days of Milly Ashford's life. Watching Lelouch attempt to hide his apparent sulking over the absence of the Japanese boy was sickening. She hadn't seen the kid so miserable much ever before in her entire earth-bound life—not even when she bothered him with her silly games.

When Shirley had attempted to ask the Britannian boy what was irking him so, he gave her a half-hearted glare that, after Shirley had looked away in annoyance, had melted into an expression so heart-wrenchingly sad that it made Milly want to drag Suzaku back to Ashford by the ears and make him apologize. Never had she felt so protective of her darling little victim when she saw him so damn _sad. _

But then Lelouch started to get physically sick.

The first sign was the apparent lack of control of his normally mastered sleeping patterns throughout class. More often than usual, the boy had been slamming his head into the desk after zoning off into space and eventually losing consciousness, hence the falling and the crashing and the cursing and the detentions.

Bringing us to the present day, twenty days after the departure of Suzaku.

"Lelouuuuuch, can you grab my Equestrian Club evaluation off the desk for meeee?" Milly asked in a sing-song voice through the doorway of the Student Council room, where Lelouch was currently writing up reports for the Council's monthly evaluation.

"The one I wrote?" Lelouch muttered, and he rose quickly from his seat to reach across the large central desk. At least, that was what he intended to do, because when he attempted to stand, Lelouch suddenly fell into a state of extreme dizziness and nausea that forced him to fall back into his seat and hold his aching head in his hands. He moaned softly, and Milly poked her head back into the Council room with a look of concern.

"Lelouch? Have you been feeling okay?" She asked sincerely, with a quiet softness that rarely emitted from her lips. He looked through his fingers with those miserable eyes that Milly could not stand before rubbing his face with his hands and slowly lifting his head with a tired expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lelouch said, slowly rising from his chair this time, and handed Milly the report with a confused look on his face, which looked to Milly like he was trying to figure out why his body had reacted so extremely to a mindless motion. "Just fine…" He repeated. Milly was equally suspicious for him as she raised her eyebrow in his direction before heading off toward a different location.

Things were definitely wrong, and it was here that Milly Ashford agreed to herself to go easy on a Mister Lelouch Lamperouge, something she never thought she'd agree to do in her entire natural life.

* * *

"Good evening, Nunnally." Lelouch said in the sweetest voice he could muster at the time, and he smiled warmly as his sister did the same.

"Onii-sama! How was your day?" She asked as Lelouch strode across the room and caressed her hand with both of his own.

"My day was just fine, thank you." He said with happiness in his tone—Nunnally was the only source of happiness he could afford when Suzaku wasn't around, but when her eyebrows suddenly furrowed with concern, Lelouch grimaced and looked to the floor.

"Onii-sama, are you sick? You seem shaky…" Nunnally searched for her brother's forehead, which she reached with amazing accuracy, and upon the realization that her brother was a bit feverish-feeling, her mouth curved into an extremely upset frown. "Onii-sama, why don't you stay home tomorrow? You feel kind of warm, maybe you should go see a doctor?" She suggested, worry embedded in her tone. Lelouch took a moment before he chuckled softly.

"Nunnally, I'll be okay, I promise. I'm not dying." He said with a slightly fake smile on his lips. A pregnant pause broke out between them.

"I miss Suzaku." Lelouch's eyes widened as Nunnally averted her focus to the floor. "He called today, but he told me you could call him back whenever you had the time."

Lelouch shook his head a bit before finding his ability to speak. "Suzaku? Did he tell you what he wanted?" He asked, his voice speeding up, a bit of urgency in his tone.

Nunnally shook her head. "No, he sounded a bit sad though. I think he was in good health, Onii-sama, he didn't seem tired or anything." Nunnally replied, hoping to reassure her brother with that last bit. Lelouch hastily kissed Nunnally upon the forehead before telling her that he would be back in a few moments, and practically ran up the stairs to his cell phone located in his room.

The ring from Suzaku's end seemed to last forever, seven point three seconds to be exact, before Suzaku picked up. "Warrant Officer Kururugi here."

Lelouch's breath caught in his throat, and all he managed to get out was an airy, "Suzaku?"

"Lelouch! I tried to call you earlier, but Nunnally said you were busy or somethi—"

"I know; what was it you wanted to tell me?" Lelouch interrupted Suzaku mid-sentence, which he ha ted to do, but what ever could have happened to his lover that could make him, the happiest person in Lelouch's world, appear sad on the telephone?

There was a thick pause that made Lelouch feel a sickening shiver go up and down his spine before he got his response. "… They need me to stay for a bit longer, Lelouch."

Once again, Lelouch found that his airways had shut down and his heart had skipped a beat. "What..?" Lelouch was having much difficulty speaking, and so he took a moment to breathe before attempting again, "…How long?"

"Six more weeks." And that was where Lelouch's heart really did rip in two within his chest.

"Oh," He managed to choke out, before sputtering his goodbyes across the telephone line as fast as he could manage.

"I love you, Lelouch." Suzaku said adamantly, and Lelouch gulped down a held breath as he shakily replied,

"I love you, too."

As soon as the telephone line had been broken on the opposite side, Lelouch took his time falling into his bed with another of his sudden dizzy spells. Tears threatened to leak from his half-lidded eyes as he cursed the power with which he loved Suzaku so very much.

* * *

So we end in angst. Reviews are nice, and even if you don't like the idea, any writing criticism/feedback is appreciated. And I know this is short, the rest of the chapters excluding Chapter Two are all within the 3,000 word range._ Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	2. Unexplained Ailment

First of all I'd like to thank everyone who left me reviews for this story already! All of the comments I'm getting are pretty positive, which is making me much more confident overall with this fanfiction. Specifically, thank you for showing me that you want an update- it's encouraged me to put this chapter up faster, so remember that in the future!

I'm putting this chapter up fairly early to give you more to read before I put up Chapter Three next Wednesday. You see, this entire story has already been written, but I'm pacing out my updates, just to annoy you. I don't think I'll ever make you wait more than a week, however, so that should be nice enough. Chapter Three will explain the way my male pregnancy works in a more detailed manner as well.

(If you haven't noticed, then I'll alert you to this- some of the words in my writing have unneeded spaces between the letters. This is because the laptop I write on has child blocks on certain words and if I do not catch them before I upload a chapter, they will show up as simply a blank spot. If you ever find a confusing blank spot somewhere, please alert me to it via PM and I will fix it!)

Hope you enjoy, and please feel free to point out any part you liked or didn't like in a review!

* * *

**Chapter 2- Unexplained Ailment**

"Good morning, Onii-sama!" Nunnally extended her arms for a hug as she greeted her brother. Her sensitive ears could easily pick up his footsteps every morning when he passed by her room.

Lelouch snapped his attention toward his sister's call and smiled as he strode over to her outstretched arms. "Good morning, Nunnally, how were your dreams?" He asked, latching around Nunnally's back in a soft hug.

"I dreamed about Suzaku last night! He was coming home early, just for you!" Nunnally giggled, obviously not sharing with Lelouch the greater details.

Lelouch struggled to keep his smile intact, and brought his sister's hand up to his lips where he brushed a kiss upon her fingertips, kneeling on one knee before her wheelchair. "Really now? And what sorts of wonderful pricey gifts did he bring his two favorite people in the world? He had better have brought us gifts." Lelouch responded with a fake glare toward the non-existent Suzaku, and Nunnally laughed with delight.

"He didn't bring us any gifts, no, but he was definitely glad to see you, Onii-sama!" Nunnally smiled and tilted her head at her brother with a knowing look. Lelouch closed his eyes as he smiled and rubbed his hand on his little sister's head ruthlessly. She gasped only slightly and reached up with her hands to cease the action.

"Onii-sama, you're going to mess up my hair right before school!" Lelouch chuckled airily and smoothed out the top of her head.

"You are always beautiful, no matter how 'messed up' I make your appearance." Lelouch reached up and kissed Nunnally's forehead, a hand supporting the back of her head, and rose from his knees to leave for morning classes.

The younger Britannian sibling giggled and smiled warmly at her brother. "You do promise to come back home should you feel sick during the day, right?" She asked, a bit of the cheerfulness dissipating from her voice.

Lelouch gave her a fake smile and said, "Of course. I'll see you later, Nunnally," He called from the doorway, "Don't forget to go to school or anything."

"Lelouch!" Nunnally's overly exasperated voice echoed through their on-campus home at Ashford Academy. "I promise I won't; now you keep _your_ promise!" She emphasized the end of her sentence as Lelouch walked out the double-doorway.

"I promise." He said mostly to himself, and trudged through the fall leaves that currently adorned Ashford's lawns toward his classes. Of course, he would probably sleep through most of the day in actuality.

* * *

Lelouch had, after a string of unfortunate hurried trips to the bathroom, successfully emptied his stomach of everything he'd consumed over the past twenty four hours, and had also acquired some much-needed time to think as he recovered on the floor of the boy's bathroom at Ashford Academy.

Such as wondering where Kallen'd been. She hadn't been in school at all for the entire three weeks—interesting; it'd already been three weeks—since Suzaku had left for work. Perhaps she'd been sick again, he mused.

What was going on at Suzaku's side of the day? He'd also asked himself this multiple times in one day. Random rambling to himself, about what could possibly be happening to his missing link's day as he emptied his stomach of digested and undigested food after lunch, often occurred.

Everything he thought about reverted to the thought of his Japanese boy.

It was here that Lelouch, after washing his face and hands in the sink at the boy's bathroom, decided to take his sister's intelligent advice and go home for the day. After washing out his mouth multiple times in an attempt to wash out the acidic taste caked on his teeth, he headed to the nurse's office, which coincidentally was past the Student Council room. _'Just to my luck'_, he pondered sarcastically. The nurse readily agreed to let him leave immediately. Schools didn't like having puking kids on their premises.

Which led us to the wandering eye that caught Lelouch's leaving self as he passed the Student Council room. Shirley Fenette was a bit smarter than she let other people on to know; she knew something was up.

So when she saw her crush speed by the classroom, she keenly jumped from her seat and chased after Lelouch, eventually catching up.

"Lulu? Are you sick? What's going on?" She asked; worry was etched into her face.

Lelouch merely looked to his right, where Shirley was now following him, and sighed. "I was hoping no one would see me," He said in his fake voice, "I'm fine, Shirley."

Shirley's eyebrows creased into downward upset slants as she frowned at him. "No, you're not! You've been so down for almost a month now, and worst of all you've been physically sick over it for the past week!" Lelouch looked to the ground.

"I… No, really, Shirley, I'll be okay." Lelouch attempted to give her a smile, but she could easily see through his eyes how tired he was.

"Stop lying to me! To all of us…" Shirley then took her turn talking to the floors to hide her face from him. "We all care about you, you know? Can't you just tell us when you're feeling sad, or sick, let us into your barricaded life? I don't want you to be alone, Lelouch." She stopped her tears before they could fall and looked straight into his violet eyes.

Shirley suddenly felt extremely terrible, for it seemed as if her crush was about to break down right there, just from the look in his eyes. "Lelouch, I'm sorry, I…" They stood there together, averting their eyes for a while, when Shirley's voice came out almost a whisper. "It's Suzaku, isn't it?" The tiredness in his eyes reappeared momentarily before he switched his mood to one of surprise.

"No, Shirley, it's not… It's not what you think." He gave her a soft apologetic gaze. She smiled ever-so-slightly, which sort of caught Lelouch off-guard.

"No, it's alright. I've had my suspicions for a while. The way you guys look at each other these days, it's like you'd kill an entire army for each other." Shirley put a hand up to cover her mouth as she giggled like a giddy schoolgirl. Lelouch, on the other hand, had a look of slight bewilderment on his face.

"You're not mad or anything?" He asked sincerely, and Shirley laughed a bit more before giving him a beaming smile.

"Of course not, so long as you're happy, I am! Although, you obviously aren't at the moment, but I can be here to help you now that you finally broke through for me."

"Even though you had this crush on me for the longest time?"

Shirley laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head. "Oh, you heard about that?" She looked down at her feet. "It's okay, really. Like I said before, so long as you're happy." She shot him a genuine smile which made Lelouch actually feel a bit better despite his terrible mood and health, and he smiled a bit too.

Shirley gasped a bit and pointed at his face, which earned her another confused look before she exclaimed, "I made you smile, Lulu! See, I can help you through this!" She giggled a bit before pulling him into a short, heartfelt hug. "Please feel better, Lulu." She whispered, and Lelouch returned her hug tightly.

"I promise I'll try, Shirley." He told her, and let go first. "I'll see you in a bit, then." He said, repositioning his bag over his shoulder. "Can you promise not to tell anyone about us? I swear I'll kill you if Milly ever hears of it." He gave her a glare that she sorely mistook as a joke and laughed at, before she realized he was being completely serious.

"Oh, yeah, of course I understand; Milly would verbally kill you." She said swiftly, and waved him goodbye. He returned the gesture in regulation, and hurried home to his bathroom where he heaved up anything left in his system and then some in the comfort of his own home.

_'What's wrong with me?'_ He asked himself, and caught a glimpse of his pale, sunken- in face in the mirror as he cleaned himself once again in the sink. Lelouch sauntered into his room and collapsed onto his bed and fell into such a deep unconsciousness so fast, it made Sayoko worry a bit when she found him there an hour later. She did the best she could for him by picking him up out of the awkward position he was in—_'My God, he's so light'_ she fretted internally—and tucking him into his bed before returning to her regular housekeeping duties.

When Nunnally returned home, Sayoko whispered to the schoolgirl her brother's condition, and while she was particularly nervous for him, she spent her afternoon with Sayoko.

* * *

"Sayoko-san, are you worried about my Onii-sama too?" Nunnally asked, her mouth turning downward into a slight frown. Sayoko put down the crane she was working on folding and sighed.

"Of course, Nunnally-sama, he just hasn't been himself, has he? I found him sleeping in his bed around noon today; he must have come home sick." She mused, and Nunnally's face twisted into one of even more concern.

"I told him to come home if he felt bad at school today…" She said with anxiety in her voice. "Did he have a fever, Sayoko-san?"

Sayoko shook her head briefly. "Not from what I felt when I put him in bed correctly, no. Did he have one yesterday?"

Nunnally nodded slightly. "A small one, yes," She sighed shakily, "I really don't like it when he's sick, Sayoko-san. I know that I can not help him, even if I so very much want to. Could you take me to his room, please?" Nunnally begged, and Sayoko easily accepted.

* * *

Lelouch could barely remember what had happened today before he had to rush to the bathroom again with another series of ha cking and coughing. He obviously hadn't anything left to give to the sewage system, because all he managed to cough up was a bunch of painful air scratching agonizingly at his throat. He downed multiple cups of water before finally leaving the bathroom and returning to his bed. His arms outstretched across the bed, Lelouch lay there in a complete haze of sickness and confusion before he heard his automatic door slide open with a hiss and his sister's wheelchair roll into his room.

"Nunnally?" He croaked quietly through his irritated voice, and he attempted to clear his throat before repeating his sister's name. "Nunnally, what is it? Is everything okay?" Nunnally gave her attention to the ground.

"No, everything is not okay, Onii-sama! You're very sick; we really should take you to a doctor!" Nunnally scolded her brother, but even when she was upset, she did little more than slightly raise her voice.

"Nunnally, I'll be okay once it blows over, I'm sure it's just a virus. I just need a lot of rest, is all." Lelouch smiled at his sister, but she didn't completely buy the story. Nunnally looked up to Sayoko; Sayoko nodded and wheeled her over to her brother's bedside, where she reached out for his hand.

Lelouch gave Nunnally his hand, to which she rubbed against her cheek. "Onii-sama, you should eat some dinner. Sayoko made some soup just for you because she knew you were sick, okay?" Nunnally reassured her brother, and despite Lelouch's dismay as to the way it would eventually leave his system before it would have even reached his digestive system, he agreed to the kind gesture.

Nunnally and Sayoko both disappeared for about a minute before reappearing with a thermos full of tomato soup. While Nunnally discussed what had happened during her day, Lelouch did really try to consume the fresh soup they'd offered him, and even though he was in no mood to even think about how acidic it would be coming back up his esophagus, he managed to drink a few sips before claiming he needed more rest. While Sayoko was very worried for him to have not eaten a full meal in days, he dismissed it and assured her he was perfectly okay, even if he truly wasn't.

Once the noisy duo had left his room, Lelouch immediately collapsed into his bed, and lazily pulled off his clothing in great effort and barely managed to pull up his covers before falling back asleep, as deeply as he had before.

* * *

Sayoko swiftly brushed her feather duster across Lelouch's bookshelves in his room as she continued to serve them as their housekeeping maid. She was, of course, incredibly loyal to the Lamperouge family, and they treated her incredibly well, so she had no objections to maintaining the house despite Lelouch's obvious attempts to keep the suite clean himself. He respected her more as a companion to his little sister Nunnally, and she respected his attempt to make her life a bit easier. Thus the two became closer to each other, as if friends.

So it came to her as quite a surprise when she found his books tilted to the side within his bookshelf, something that Lelouch would have never tolerated due to his extreme hatred of objects placed out-of-line.

She was even more surprised when, as she pushed the books back to their rightful state, she saw what she believed to be a note behind said books.

Utter confusion was clearly displayed on her face when she removed the piece of paper only to find that it was a prescription report. She wondered what it was for just a moment before she recognized the name on the slip.

_'Oh.'_

"Oh, dear Go—" Sayoko suddenly remembered that Lelouch was sleeping just feet away from where she stood, and cut herself off as she stared at the letter. She promptly snapped her attention back to reality and shakily put it back in its previous location, as well as left the books tilted to the left ever-so-slightly, so as Lelouch could also find out on his own.

Sayoko nearly had to sprint out of Lelouch's room to make it out of his earshot before giggling so hard she snorted, something quite unbecoming of a lady. Her cackles slowed to a stop after about thirty seconds, and she set a straight face back on while she calmly walked away from the scene and continued her work elsewhere.

When Nunnally returned home from school that day, she noticed a spring in Sayoko's step and asked what was quite so entertaining as to pep up Sayoko's mood, but she merely responded with a giggle, and a "You'll know soon enough, Nunnally-sama.", which left Nunnally with a lot of questions and a bit of a headache.

* * *

Ah, Sayoko, the world's just a bit better with you around. Thanks to all who read, please do leave a review! Any kind of feedback is good feedback! Except flames.

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	3. Why would this be on my bookshelf?

As promised, Chapter Three is here for your enjoyment. Please continue to Read and Review! (On a personal note, I'm sick with something awful! I know how you feel, Lelouch!)

Thanks to all who left reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying my fanfiction so far! This marks the point in which my chapter lengths even out to a rather steady 3,500-ish word count (and I write smaller, more reasonable author's notes). I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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**Chapter 3- "Why would this be on my bookshelf?"**

Nunnally Lamperouge was bo mbarded with questions from the Student Council after the sudden disappearance of her famous absent-minded older brother. Milly was the first to strike, her questions loud, rude, and extremely tiresome.

"So, Nunnally, is your brother having relationship problems? Is he sneaking out with some gi rl? Does he tell you anything about their troubled relationship?" Milly fired off interrogations one by one into the blind gi rl's face, which she quite literally shied away from. Nunnally had sincerely tried to convince the crazy reporter-girl that her brother was indeed just sick with a very bad illness, but nothing could sway her opinion that Lelouch was having some sort of secret love affair outside of Ashford. Had Nunnally had any shred of an evil heart, she would have raised her voice and lashed out among the crazy gi rls—and Rivalz—to leave her and her sickly older brother alone.

What she actually found extremely peculiar was that Shirley had not bothered her one bit about the whole thing. If she remembered right, Shirley had a big crush on her brother, so wouldn't she naturally be concerned if Milly was spreading rumors of a love interest? All she had done was give her a comforting rub on the shoulder when Milly attacked her verbally from time to time, and told Nunnally that she believed her.

Now that it occurred to her, Suzaku was scheduled to return home in just a couple of weeks, wasn't he? A huge smile adorned her face at the discovery, and she made it a promise to herself that she would tell Lelouch this when she returned home from school that day. Maybe that would make him feel a bit better.

So Nunnally decided to excuse herself early from the Student Council, which she had often come to recently not only in her brother's place but also as the 'unofficial member', as declared by Rivalz. The Council aside from Shirley once again did not believe that she was merely leaving early to care for her sick brother as best she could, but Nunnally brushed them off. Sometimes, it took a lot to restrain herself from getting angry at the lot of them. Thankfully, Shirley had volunteered to wheel her home that day, which meant that she would not have to go through some sort of invigorating evaluation on her peaceful stroll home from school.

"Nunnally? May I come in and visit Lulu for a bit? I want to check up on him again." Nunnally readily agreed and held Shirley's hand the rest of the way. Shirley had also come to comfort her brother earlier in the week; she must have wanted to see if he'd gotten any better, which, unfortunately, he hadn't. The strength it took him to even keep down water sucked all the energy out of Lelouch rather quickly. He was a particularly weak person to begin with, so big health complications such as these took a big toll on him, while they could take up to a month of healing in his case.

When their short relaxing walk had come to an end at the double-doorway to the Lamperouge suite, Shirley had wheeled Nunnally into the foyer and taken care of her, despite Sayoko's insistence. After having gone through the entrance to their home, Sayoko had implicated that Lelouch was still in bed after a particularly spike that afternoon. Both Shirley and Nunnally had unmistakable nervousness in their faces, which made Sayoko laugh a bit, earning the maid a couple of angry and confused looks. She waved the two off and continued cleaning in another room, leaving the two Ashford gi rls to find Lelouch in his bedroom.

The sliding door to Lelouch's room slid open noisily as the two gi rls tried desperately to get in quietly. "Onii-sama?" Nunnally almost whispered, and what the two received was the sound of bed sheets shifting and Lelouch's croaky response.

"Nunnally? What crazy person's come with you this time?" He barely pulled out of his vocal cords, and Shirley suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable with disturbing Lelouch when he was so sickly. His eyes had sunken into his face, and it seemed as if he hadn't eaten a decent meal in weeks, which was mostly true. He certainly visibly looked extremely infected with something sucking the life out of him, because he had definitely not looked like this when Shirley had checked up on him earlier in the week. It was almost as if something was constantly sucking him dry, sucking out every shred of energy he managed to produce.

"It's just Shirley, Onii-sama. She seems to be the only sane one on the whole Council at the moment." And along with Nunnally's giggle and Lelouch's weak chuckle, all Shirley could do was smile.

"Nunnally? Do you think I could speak to your brother for a bit? Alone?" Shirley almost pleaded. Nunnally nodded after a concerned look whipped over her face for just a moment of uncertainty. Shirley helped the younger Lamperouge through the door and to Sayoko, where she was escorted into some other room for a time.

The silence between them was broken by Lelouch's broken voice. "Yes?" He asked, his pained-looking eyes staring up into Shirley's with a look almost pitiful at a glance, but this was Lelouch here; he tried very hard not to look pitiful.

"Have you gotten any better at all, Lelouch?" Shirley barely spoke, a fake smile plastered on her face. Lelouch reached for a bottle of water on his bedside table, and Shirley noticed just how weak he was by how much his arm was shaking, just by fighting gravity. He took a tiny sip from the bottle, something she supposed was the only thing he could afford without puking it back up, and he just looked at her without giving her an answer for the longest time.

"Not quite. I'll live, though." Shirley wished that she could believe him completely. The air began to feel uncomfortable, and Shirley desperately tried to look somewhere other than Lelouch's terrible eyes. Somehow, in doing so, she noticed a bit of paper behind Lelouch's books on a nearby bookshelf. "Lulu? Do you have something hidden behind those books?" She asked naturally, and Lelouch gave her an exaggerated look of confusion.

"No… why? Is there something back there?" He asked inno cently, and though Shirley was a bit suspicious, she decided to leave it alone.

She shook her head vigorously. "It's nothing. I should leave you to your sister now then, okay?" He nodded, before Shirley jumped out of the room, directed Nunnally back to her brother and left the Lamperouge household.

Things were looking bleak for her crush indeed.

Meanwhile, in Lelouch's room, Nunnally and Lelouch were speaking up a storm of stories. More Nunnally's voice than his, but the stories were animated enough to get a laugh or two out of the tired former prince.

"Hey, Lelouch? I just realized something earlier today! Suzaku's supposed to be home soon!" Nunnally said with a big smile, and Lelouch's eyes widened just a bit.

"Really? How many weeks has it been?" He asked.

"Six weeks, he'll be here in two more!" Nunnally could barely hold in the happiness she felt bubbling in her throat and let out a stifled giggle. Lelouch could barely retain the information—it'd been six weeks? Though they seemed to have gone by slowly at the time, it appeared that time was simply on his side that night, and he gave his sister a genuine smile he hadn't released in what felt like ages.

"I'm very glad." He said, and let himself fall back into the endless stack of pillows holding up his head. Nunnally giggled once more.

"Good night, Onii-sama." She said, and called for Sayoko to assist her in reaching the sitting room. Nunnally received a mumble in response, and she took that as a legitimate 'Good night, Nunnally.'

* * *

Lelouch hobbled over to his bed from the bathroom. Granted it was a normal bathroom break, not anything like the previous trips he would have gotten normally around this time. The boy paused in front of the bookshelf, thinking about it a bit more. Perhaps the sickness was slowing down? Lelouch smiled briefly before catching the same glint Shirley had prompted him to a few days ago. His eyebrow shot up in exaggeration as he reached through his books to find that it was a receipt for some medical procedure.

'_Maybe this is Suzaku's…' _Lelouch wondered, not having seen the supposed medicine prescribed ever before in his home. "Sayoko?" Lelouch yelled through the house, and when the maid's swift feet came to a halt in the hallway, she seemed to be biting in laughter, which caused Lelouch's eyebrow to jolt upwards once again. He quickly ignored it and got to his point. "Sayoko, what is this?"

"Master Lelouch, that's a doctor's note on a special medicine." She said with laughter coming through her voice. Lelouch was all the more confused.

"Yes, I already noticed that, do you know what kind of medicine it would be?" Sayoko stifled a laugh once more that came out as some sort of an awkward squeak before she spoke up again, her face flustered.

"It's a procedure for women, Lelouch. To get them pregnant when their own bodies can not conceive." Lelouch was getting a bit angry at this point.

"Why would this be on my bookshelf?" He asked, trying to keep his voice down from the irritation.

"Well, I suppose… it also works on… boys?" Sayoko said, finally allowing her laughter to come in full force as she bustled out of her master's room.

Lelouch, well, stood there for a while. He stared into that piece of paper like it was some sort of evil enigma out to get him. It took him quite a while to really think about what Sayoko had said.

"Wait…. I'm _pregnant?_" He squeaked out, so incredibly embarrassed and confused and most of all, angry. His frightened expression then turned to one of complete wrath as it dawned on him just who would have done this.

"_Suzaku!"_ Lelouch growled, and locked his door so as to be alone while he had a temper tantrum.

* * *

After having initially let out his fuming emotions and helped Sayoko clean up his now destroyed room while muttering apologies, Lelouch actually felt rather… contented. It was a bit relieving to finally know what was wrong and track likely sickness times, granted he was completely confused as to how this medicine could conceivably work and hadn't let the realization sink into his mind. Though he had yet to tell Nunnally the news, she seemed to have been already enlightened on the matter, as whenever Sayoko wheeled her past his room, the both of them now stifled giggles bubbling up in their throats.

Lelouch rolled his eyes—_'I suppose it's just a woman thing,'_ he mused—as he groaned after having been attacked in the ears by the high pitched laughter now seeping into his doorway every time his room was so much as seen.

For some reason, Lelouch was rather adamant to himself about not alarming Suzaku to his awareness. Even though it may have seemed as if he was holding some sort of grudge, it was not anger that prevented him from dialing his lover's number, but a sort of confusion that made his stomach twist up in an emotion completely foreign to him. Perhaps it was embarrassment, pride, or simply the gi rl side of him—that would soon beg for release later on in this synthesized pregnancy—that desperately wanted it to be a disclosure for his lover's homecoming.

Now that it was just about ninety-nine point nine percent certain that the Britannian boy was pregnant, the flustered Lelouch had also adamantly gone against a visit to the doctor. Sayoko insisted sternly, like a mother ("Lelouch, you have to get it checked out. What if something were to be wrong?"), and Nunnally begged weakly, like a best friend ("Oh, please, Onii-sama! Don't you want to know how far along you are?"). Lelouch, faced with the powers of two women seemingly towering over him with their womanly manipulation, had stood his ground. The women surrounding him were both visibly displeased, but Lelouch simply refused to go to a doctor until it was necessary, to at least save himself some dignity.

"We'll have to get you clothes for your later trimesters! Oh, and we'll have to plan a shower, and buy you baby things, and do all of those fun little things future mothers get to do!" Lelouch ha ted disappointing his sister, so he only chuckled and nodded at the activities he most certainly was not excited for.

"You have told Suzaku, haven't you?" Sayoko added, her expression of excitement wavering only slightly when Lelouch hesitated.

"I don't know, I kind of want it to be a homecoming discussion, really." He said quietly, and though it was partially true, he felt his gut twisting yet again, but in a much different way from before. This time it felt sad, uncomfortable, and extremely hungry. "Do you think I could have something to eat, Sayoko-san? I think it's okay to eat now, it isn't the afternoon yet." He asked with a smile.

Sayoko busied herself with pushing Nunnally out of the room and rushing to make Lelouch the biggest and fullest meal they could conjure up with minimal preparation time, due to the fact that they were on a tight, unconfirmed schedule. Lelouch's eyes fluttered around his brightly lit room half-lidded, as he was extremely exhausted already by all of this restless news.

In came the parade, loaded with sandwiches, milk, fruits, and many other assorted things Lelouch barely cared to recognize. His sister rode in with the huge tray resting on her lap, and with the help of Sayoko, she set it down beside him in his bed. Lelouch sat up and grabbed for a sandwich- whatever kind, it did not matter. His stomach was yearning so much for that food it was painful. Even though he truly wanted to rip apart those sandwiches with his teeth and swallow the apples whole, he politely took as much time as he could bear to chew and swallow.

The apparent spawn inside of him however greatly disapproved, because a twinge in his stomach signaled that he simply could not eat all that he wanted to. He alerted Sayoko to the feeling calmly, and she took Nunnally out of his room before checking back on him again. "Do you think you will be able to return to school any time school, Lelouch-sama?" She asked quietly.

"I think the sickness is wearing down finally, so maybe for a bit afterward I will. I'm sorry…" Lelouch said softly, his eyes flicking downwards as he twisted his bed sheets in his hands. "I don't want to be such a burden on the two of you…" He continued, and Sayoko's eyes widened a bit before she threw her head back in laughter.

"I think the gi rl in you is coming out already, Lelouch-sama." She said, covering her mouth as she giggled at his random change of heart. Lelouch was a bit confused, but let it slide as she said her goodbyes and left him to his room, to think, as he usually had in this entire time home from school.

"One and a half more weeks left, Suzaku," Lelouch whispered, "I'll be seeing you soon."

* * *

"Onii-sama, do you think any of our friends would have any supplies to offer?"

"Lelouch-sama, you should talk to Suzaku before he comes home."

"When can we know what the gender is, Onii-sama?"

"Do you have any idea how to raise a child, Lelouch-sama?"

"Can we start thinking of names yet?"

"Please?"

"Can we?"

"How?"

"When?"

"Lelouch?" Sayoko's worried glance snapped Lelouch back into reality, and he swiftly wiped the extremely annoyed look off his face. Rubbing at his forehead, he sighed.

"Can you two leave me alone? I have a lot to think about right now." When in his mind he wanted to just go to sleep and escape it all, Lelouch was sick of hearing his sister's pleads and his housekeeper's insistence. His voice came off a bit harsher than he intended, but Sayoko nodded with understanding, and Nunnally was wheeled off Lelouch's premises before he could snap.

"Suzaku, you picked the best and worst time to go away." He groaned and rolled over in his bed. It may have been beneficial to the Japanese to hide away from him as he settled into this whole 'pregnancy thing', but it was extremely rude of him to just leave him to figure it out. Lelouch laughed a bit. "I bet you forgot by now, hmm?" He said to himself, directing it at Suzaku, wherever he may have been.

"Goodnight." He once again, said to no one, but he unfortunately didn't quite get to sleep as easily as he had intended. A terrible aversion to sleep had settled into his mind as he wondered about how this procedure was working inside of him, so he decided to solve the problem by grabbing the doctor's note and turning on his room's computer for a quick search.

When he entered the word he assumed stood for the medicine he'd received into a search engine, his browser came up with an astounding amount of articles and newsreels discussing the process. Lelouch tried to find some sort of official site for his subject and went to the Frequently Asked Questions section of the webpage.

"What has been done to make this possible?" Lelouch muttered the sentence out loud as he read it off the page.

'_The medication given to the future baby's host includes a lab-prepared fertilized ovule, which has had its DNA previously altered to include the haploid cell of each parent combined into a normal, functioning zygote. This medicine has been designed to initially aid women without functioning reproductive systems in the ability to become pregnant, but this procedure has also been tested to have successfully worked with homosexual partners._

'_The medicine then takes the process a step further and forms its own working womb complete with a placenta, in which the zygote will mature internally as a normally created zygote would. With this process a baby can be conceived without the usually necessary female reproductive organs. The matured baby is removed through a protocol caesarean section.  
_

_'Homosexual partners do have to take this process into a more detailed method, as the scientists preparing the partners' zygote will have to smooth out the inaccurate X and Y chromosome factor, but for a larger price this can be done efficiently with a specialized restriction enzyme procedure. _

_'Some risks to this process have been reported and seen in experiments, but complications have been corrected and there is a small chance of problems occurring. If you are concerned that your procedure has gone wrong, refer to Question Six.'_

"What the hell?" Lelouch muttered, his face obscured into a terribly confused, overwhelmed mess. He read through the article at least three times before falling back into his chair, massaging his neck through the growing headache appearing from the confusion.

"Who would have thought Britannia could go so far as to warp nature's reproduction processes? Now we really are acting like Gods." He murmured before falling into his bed with a _'thump'._

"Now, it's goodnight, I guess." He spoke to the ceiling with a sigh brushing past his lips. "You'd better watch yourself, Suzaku." He growled, before drifting off into a peaceful slumber.

* * *

I know, that was a rather unoriginal way to explain how my process works, but it does its job, right? Please leave reviews for me, they make me happy! Tell me if you loved it, or ha ted it, or somewhere-in-between-ed it! Plus, if you have questions or concerns about my story, please PM me!

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	4. Are you keeping a secret from us?

There are a few things I'd like to address before we move on to Chapter Four of my fanfiction.

Again, thanks so much for all of the reviews! I've already reached two pages on my story's reviews page and I haven't even gotten to the juicy parts yet! I'd also like to personally thank **Nea Marika** and **asami-chan37 **for your reviews; I can not personally respond to your reviews (unless I am missing a method of response), so I will thank you here! (If you want me to remove your name from this Author's Note for any reason, just let me know.)

Many different things happening in this chapter- just about a bit of everything. I hope you enjoy, thanks! Alert me to any strange mistakes or gaps you may catch!

(I also apologize that in this story, I do 'pick favorites' somewhat and ignore characters like Kallen and Rivalz. Because the Black Rebellion never happens in this universe, Kallen wouldn't make any impression on anyone other than she's a sickly gi rl in the Council. Rivalz doesn't really play much of a part mostly because this story is such a gi rl's story, and he's only there for the chess gambling plot device anyway.)

* * *

**Chapter 4- "…Are you keeping a secret from us?"**

Here he was again, standing in this airport.

The only difference was that this time, he was retrieving what this public building had taken from him. Lelouch stood at the gate from which his lover would hopefully exit from, staring into it with his expression an unreadable mix.

He wasn't actually quite sure what to feel. He was angry at Suzaku, for not telling him that he was secretly growing a baby within his body without his consent. He was sad, for having had to live for so long without him and hope to no one that his loved one was healthy and safe. He was happy, for he got to see him once again after a long wait. What did this all add up to? What emotion could possibly come out of this? Much like the primary colors, when mixed together, all one gets is mud.

So he waited there, an unsure expression smacked onto his face. Sayoko and Nunnally insisted that they wait a safe distance away from the two while they reunited. He sincerely hoped his confusion hadn't been that terrifying by sheer aura alone.

Suzaku stepped out of that exit, the fourth to be released from this airport's grasp. Lelouch struggled to keep his posture as Suzaku so much as ran to him. The Britannian of the two stopped his tears from spilling out of his eyes with sheer will.

The running had barely taxed the Japanese boy, but he seemed to be out of breath as he stopped immediately in front of Lelouch, so turned off by the obvious opposing aura that he did not hug him upon impact.

Lelouch stared coldly up into Suzaku's grateful eyes as his lover wrapped his arms around him, against his will. He gripped Suzaku's shoulders painfully and bit his lip in his fraught attempt to hold back what he was feeling due to the grudge he wanted to withstand.

"I missed you. I missed you so much, Lelouch. You have no idea." Suzaku breathed into Lelouch's ear, but Lelouch pulled his eyes shut and pushed Suzaku away, leaving Suzaku extremely confused, so very unaware.

"I have no idea? What the hell did you do to me?" Lelouch said quietly, shaking in the anger he felt.

"Lelouch, I—"

"No, just stop! I don't want to hear you right now. What… Why did you…" Lelouch was slowly and painfully losing his ability to form coherent speech as he shut his eyes against the tears that threatened to fall once more.

"No, wait," Suzaku attempted to start again, his eyes showing confusion.

"Why did you slip me that thing, Suzaku?" Lelouch barely made out. He pulled his head up as to look into Suzaku's eyes again, one tear slowly making its way down Lelouch's cheek. "Why did you leave, even when you knew? Didn't you care?"

Suzaku was taken aback, and he wore his feelings on his sleeve for Lelouch to see. Guilt was swimming in his own eyes as Lelouch struggled to figure out why he was reacting this way. He'd almost promised himself beforehand that he would not overreact, but here he was, crying and complaining right to Suzaku's face. A tiny curl of a smile made its way onto Lelouch's face as he let his head back down and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I'm sorry, Suzaku, I'm just scared." He finally admitted, and pulled Suzaku into a hug.

Suzaku, thoroughly confused as to why Lelouch was snapping into multiple emotions so rapidly upon his arrival, had not said anything while he watched the feelings switch in and out of Lelouch's face. He mentally scratched his head. Though he willingly received the hug, he was still puzzled over what to feel himself. Confusion? Understanding? Guilt?

So he returned the embrace with all his effort.

When they released, Suzaku cupped Lelouch's cheeks with both hands, and stopped any threatening tears from escaping with his . "Let's try that again." He said, and Lelouch managed to let out a small laugh. "Lelouch, I love you so much, and I won't ever leave you again." He said, confidence seeping from his expression.

"Promise?" Lelouch said, pouting a bit, and Suzaku couldn't help but laugh at the child-like state his lover was now in.

"Yes, I promise with all of my heart. Now, shall we go home?" Suzaku said with a smile that Lelouch absent-mindedly returned as he nodded, and the two knitted their fingers together while they walked back to the company of Nunnally and Sayoko.

"How did you actually slip me that stuff, Suzaku?" Lelouch asked, a questioning glance sent Suzaku's way as he snapped out of the stupor he'd been reduced to.

"Remember when I took you to get that shot?" Suzaku told him with a nervous laugh, not bothering to answer his question. Lelouch unlatched their hands for just a moment so he could smack him on the side and mutter complaints to do with Suzaku's naivety before putting his hand back in place, a bit begrudgingly.

"I am still angry at you, you know." Lelouch muttered- Suzaku only laughed. "I'm serious, I'll get you back for this." Another laugh only proved to pi ss Lelouch off more, but it melted away upon Nunnally's appearance.

"Suzaku!" Nunnally almost squealed (to Lelouch's annoyance) and the two struck up a random conversation. Obviously having to do with the baby, knowing Nunnally, but Lelouch let it slide. Sayoko nodded as she led the group to their ride back to Ashford Academy, noticed that the couple still had their hands together as if bound in place, and smiled to herself. This was going to be an interesting story.

* * *

The sound of the bathroom door opening disturbed Suzaku from his peaceful morning shower.

"Lelouch?" He asked as he heard the noises of toiletries being unveiled for a morning routine.

"Yes?" Lelouch asked a bit too sweetly as he turned the faucet up at a full blast on hot. Suzaku winced as the shower's water ran cold momentarily, but let it go as a mistake.

"Couldn't you have waited until I finished my shower?" Suzaku stopped himself from pleading.

"Oh? But I couldn't have known how long you would have taken in there." Lelouch responded, the sickly sweet voice still unnerving to Suzaku's ears.

Lelouch smirked as he flushed the toilet. "Oops, my hand slipped." He feigned apology in an obvious manner as Suzaku yelped and jumped from the scalding shower's water. He held back giggles of victory and kept his expression blank as Suzaku pulled the shower curtain away just enough for his head to peek from behind; he had a frown on initially, but Lelouch melted that away with a strong, fake, 'I'm sorry' pout. He released a sigh instead.

"Your house has so many other bathrooms, Lelouch. Can't you go use a different one?" Suzaku complained through his sigh.

"I suppose." Lelouch said, sounding hurt as he collected his toothbrush and sulked out of the bathroom to the one just down the hall. Suzaku took this chance to step back into the shower and continue washing his hair. Unfortunately, it was not long before more buckets of burning water poured over his scalp. A yell of "Sorry!" was heard even through the bathroom door, followed by frivolous laughter.

Suzaku's eyebrow twitched in anger as he tried once more to finish rinsing the shampoo from his hair in an extremely fast manner. He'd barely completed his task before a jet of freezing cold water drowned him unexpectedly. Suzaku paid no attention to Sayoko's apologizing yell as he stomped from the bathroom in only his towel.

Lelouch was waiting for him, snickering as Suzaku paraded around the room with only a towel as he searched for clothing desperately. No one thinks logically when infuriated, of course. "Looking for that?" Lelouch asked sweetly as he pointed at the large dresser across from the bed he was sitting on at the moment.

Suzaku mumbled something incoherent as he grabbed his clothes from the drawer and shut himself in the bathroom to change. Lelouch couldn't hold in his mischievous laughter after the door was closed as he fell back into the bed with a smirk on his face.

His bubbling laughter was instantaneously shot down as Suzaku walked back into the room, now fully clothed. He melted his expression into fake apology once more. "Are you angry, Suzaku?" Lelouch asked in the most heartfelt, depressing way he could manage as an actor.

"No." Suzaku sighed as he walked over to their bed and crawled across its spread to tower over Lelouch. "Is this war going to go on for very long?" He asked, staring intently into Lelouch's eyes.

"You deserve it. Where did your morality go when you decided to do this?" No more sarcastic voices from Lelouch, and Suzaku would have been happy about it would it not have been replaced with weightiness.

"Well, you said you wanted kids once or twice…" Suzaku pushed himself up and off Lelouch and gave him a sheepish, guilty look.

"So you took that seriously?" Lelouch asked, exasperated.

"Well, I took that as an invite…" Suzaku was bold enough to look Lelouch in the eye with confession glazed over his features.

"You are so clueless sometimes." Lelouch panned. Suzaku almost nodded in agreement.

"Well, if a couple wants to have kids, don't they generally try to get pregnant?" Suzaku tried to defend his weak point.

"Suzaku, generally a couple will wait until they've married before even trying for children." Lelouch felt as if he was appealing common sense to a monkey.

"I'll remember that next time." Lelouch snorted at Suzaku's optimistic response.

"There isn't a next time, idiot."

"Right."

* * *

Lelouch was now healthy enough to go back to school.

Though he was completely against the notion, since it would leave him with some explaining to do when he disappeared again for about five months without notice, Suzaku had, with his amazing unexplainable powers, convinced him otherwise. _'Damn him for being so cowardly as to seduce me into complying,'_ he often complained.

Suzaku merely smiled and took Lelouch's hand in his as they walked across the premises to school.

"They'll see us, Suzaku," Lelouch whispered anxiously and tugged at Suzaku's hold on him, but Suzaku only tightened his grip on his lover's hand, and Lelouch was left to sigh, grin, and bear it. Lelouch instinctively leaned into Suzaku's arm only slightly, but instantly pulled himself up and released Suzaku's hand as he realized that they were already in the hallways of Ashford Academy.

He looked around wildly; he was uncharacteristically curious about what the classmates surrounding him could possibly have thought as they watched the spectacle. "Don't worry about it, we're fine," Suzaku cooed, but Lelouch's heart sunk when he heard frantic whispers surrounding them as they stood still halfway from the Student Council room. Suzaku's eyes reflected a combination of anger and worry as he grabbed Lelouch's hand once more, and pulled them both to the Council room on swift feet.

They remained silent as they rushed through the mob of people until they finally burst through the doors of the room. "Sorry we're late, lots of people in the halls." Suzaku mumbled loudly as he shut the doors noisily, anger pulsing in his eyes.

"Suzaku, stop," Lelouch said quietly, looking to the floor, "They don't matter." _'They shouldn't matter,_' he said internally. Suzaku looked at him with momentary irritation before closing his eyes and sighing.

The contents of the Council room were…confused, to say the least. Shirley had worry etched into her face, and though it was hard to grasp, so did Milly. Nina actually took the time to unglue her eyes from her computer screen and seemed to have a look of disbelief shot at the two of them. Rivalz was nowhere to be seen, but Kallen was back at school, her sickness having seemingly waned enough for her to return, much like Lelouch.

It seemed to be like a silent war, the Student Council versus Lelouch and Suzaku, as they looked at each other throughout an awkward silence. This silence was quickly destroyed by Milly as she jumped from her seat.

"Lelouuuch, I'm so glad you're back! You too, Suzaku." She said, giggling as she jumped on the both of them with a big hug. Shirley relaxed into a smile when she noticed that the two had yet to realize that they were still holding hands behind their backs. Suzaku broke the lock when he took both of their school bags to the corner of the club room. The room finally fell back into the normalcy it was previously in as they all greeted each other.

"You don't want to know how much work Milly has piled up for you, Lulu." Shirley said with a giggle, and Lelouch let a disgruntled image project onto his facial features.

"And here I was hoping she would take it easy on me after being so sick for so long," He complained with a sigh, "She should know how much of a procrastinator I am with these things." Milly put her pointer finger between his eyes, on the bridge of his nose, causing him to go cross-eyed and earn himself a temporary headache.

"You are going to do everything I tell you to do and like it, because you're the Vice President, Mister!" She said in a nagging tone, and flicked him in the forehead, a quiet yelp coming from his mouth as he swatted her hand away.

"Shall we go to class before we're late?" Suzaku suggested, looking at Lelouch only, who nodded in response. They both made their way out of the classroom to the class they shared together in the mornings.

"What's going on with them?" Kallen finally spoke up, and Shirley bit her lip as Milly looked her way.

"I'm not sure, but I'm going to find out." She said, winking at Kallen before standing up from her seat on the table and striding out the door to her classes as well. Shirley felt her heart sink as she worried to herself. _'What is Milly going to do to them?'_ She asked herself.

"Shirley? Are you sick or something?" Kallen asked inno cently, and Shirley shook her head a bit before giving her a smile.

"No, I'm alright, just thinking." She said thoughtfully, and the last contents of the room spilled out for the school day.

* * *

This day had turned to hell for one Lelouch Lamperouge.

Worrying about his classmates finding out about him and Suzaku had ruled over his day and prevented him from sleeping as he usually had during his classes. He skillfully avoided crowds and painfully dodged Suzaku throughout the day when he didn't have classes with him.

Suzaku had effectively given him an irrational paranoia, just by holding his hand. He mentally kicked himself for letting it get to him so much, but he was afraid of what he or more importantly Suzaku may have to go through. Though it was strange coming from him, Lelouch did care about keeping his school persona intact and professional.

The whispers continued to swirl around his form as he walked through Ashford, trying to escape the voices and turning heads and simply get a breath of fresh air. The day was almost over; he could almost leave this place before it became an immediate issue, or worse yet Milly found out.

Finally reaching the outdoors, he leaned against the wall of the school building, closed his eyes, and breathed deeply to calm himself, but his rest time did not last.

"So we heard you were in a relationship." He heard a female voice say, and when he opened his eyes, he was faced with an army of female delinquents who seemed quite angry. His eyes widened briefly in fear before regaining their calm guise. When he did not respond, the leader clenched her fists at her sides.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Are we all not good enough? Did we force you out of the closet?!" Her volume increased with time as the other gi rls yelled out multiple curses and names. Lelouch shakily crossed his arms and remained silent, staring into the leader's eyes.

The gi rl finally lost her grip on her anger and pushed him harshly into the wall, earning herself a few cheers from the others. "Listen to me, you little fa ggot, I'd be careful if I were you; your disgusting boyfriend too." She said with a sneer and a hard slap to his face, and let him go as she turned around and pumped her posse with adrenaline.

As if to save the day, Suzaku came running. The gi rls all turned their heads and Lelouch tried to take it as a chance to get away, but she shoved him back into the rugged rock, making him yelp as his hands were painfully scratched on the concrete. He shut his eyes tightly, as if anticipating something worse, but Suzaku came before anything could be inflicted.

Lelouch's lover pried the gi rl's hands from his shoulders and yelled at the lot of females, but Lelouch could not make out what they were saying as he slid to the ground and hugged his bleeding hands. He watched as their feet shuffled away from the scene from his position at ground level and saw Suzaku's face fall down into his field of vision, but Lelouch's eyes were blank and teary.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku asked for him shakily, but Lelouch continued to quiver on the ground. Without warning, Suzaku grabbed his hands, causing Lelouch to yelp a bit from the contact with the multiple bleeding cuts etched into his skin.

Suzaku then pulled his arms around Lelouch's shaking figure, whispering sweet nothings into his temporarily deaf ears. Lelouch let his head rest on the other's shoulder, his eyes closed, cemented shut with tears he did not want to fall. "I'm sorry." Suzaku whispered.

"Sorry for what?" Lelouch finally responded. Suzaku pulled back from his hug and let his fingers brush over the red mark with potential to bruise on Lelouch's cheek with regret in his eyes.

"I wanted to hold your hand this morning. I'm sorry." He repeated as he held him close once more.

Unbeknownst to the two boys, Shirley was hiding behind a nearby tree as she watched the display without interruption. She bit her lip and clenched her fists in the extreme rage she felt against those gi rls. If they really cared about Lelouch, wouldn't they let him do what made him happy? That was what she had decided to do on her own time. Whatever those people were planning, it definitely was not good, and Shirley was extremely afraid of what the couple may have to endure in the future.

* * *

Lelouch and Suzaku had managed to muster up the energy to finish up the day at the Council room, despite the day's earlier endeavors. Shirley watched Lelouch carefully, duly noting that he had quite the paranoia surrounding him wherever he went. He looked over his shoulder as he walked into the Student Council room and had his eyes constantly searching the room's corners. Shirley guessed that he hadn't told Suzaku exactly what the gi rls had said to him, because Suzaku seemed quite a bit less anxious and aware when compared to his lover.

Though the two conveyed different internal feelings, both were definitely tired as they seemed to yawn and sag with fatigue. She could only guess what sorts of things the two had been keeping themselves up with the night before, to which she laughed out loud, earning her two confused looks from the couple.

To Shirley's left Milly sat on the corner of the table, striking up a random conversation with Nina before averting her eyes toward the two boys in her presence. Her grin made Shirley shudder when she imagined the matching cackle that should have erupted from her lips as she scooted over to Lelouch's side and ran a finger along his chin.

"Hey, Lelouch, are you keeping a secret from us?" She asked seductively, pushing Lelouch's face up to her stare, and Lelouch did not respond in the slightest; in fact, his expression exemplified annoyance as he sighed in her face.

"President, you should invest in keeping your nose out of other people's lives." He said, an aloof look gazing into her crystalline eyes, a smile playing on his lips.

"Oh ho, the Vice President's getting snappy? Don't come to me for advice when the whole school is nipping at your feet when word gets out!" Shirley could see that both Lelouch and Suzaku were desperately trying to keep the shock and curiosity out of their faces. She, of course, knew that Milly was making a wild guess, so as to lure information out of Lelouch, to perhaps find out about their possible shenanigans.

"So was I right?" Milly asked over her shoulder, grinning evilly with a glint in her eye. Shirley gulped and shut her widening eyes, hoping to save them.

"I don't know what you're implying, President." Lelouch said with a casual smile. Suzaku was not quite so good at hiding the truth, and therefore kept his attention averted to the wall and his mouth shut.

Milly pointed rudely at the both of them, and loudly exclaimed, "The two of you are so going out with each other!"

Lelouch relaxed a bit after the initial fear. "And if we are?" He asked smoothly. Shirley was very confused. Weren't they trying to keep it a secret? _'I guess,' _she pondered, _'they think it inevitable that Milly will find out sooner or later, and better to learn by them than anyone else.'_

Milly all but shrieked in excitement. "Now I finally have some dirt on you! After all of these years, I've finally found something to hit the tabloids of Ashford Academy! You won't see the light of day when I'm through with you." She said with great enthusiasm, darkening up as she threatened him with her powers over the social universe. Lelouch sighed while Suzaku seemed to shrink into the farthest corner of the room that he could manage.

Lelouch massaged his forehead with his hand. "Keeping secrets from you people is like trying to hide an elephant. What ever shall we do now, Suzaku?"

Suzaku, having been brought into the spotlight, snapped his head up, a slight blush tinting his cheeks as he struggled for words. "Uhm… we could… not bother hiding anymore?" He said with a big grin and confidence flowing back into his veins, and before Lelouch could stop him, Suzaku pulled him into a deep lip-lock, in the middle of the Student Council room, in front of Milly Ashford.

Shirley averted her gaze and blushed at the floor. Milly began to cackle and reached for her camera. Suzaku was so lost in the kiss that he didn't even notice, but Lelouch sensed the notion and broke them apart before any shots could be taken. "S-Suzaku! Geez, that was uncalled for!" Lelouch stuttered with a deep red blush and joined Shirley in their staring contest with the wooden flooring. Suzaku laughed and leaned on the table.

This was going to be one wild ride, alright.

* * *

"This is breaking news to the Ashford Academy as of yesterday afternoon! Apparently, the great Lelouch Lamperouge has a big secret—he's gay, and dating our very own Suzaku Kururugi! Personal confirmation on the matter has been conducted by—"

Lelouch promptly averted his attention from the school's television stream and looked straight into Suzaku's nervous eyes. "The day after and she has a whole report on the two of us." He said with annoyance as they walked through the hallways with multiple gaping faces following them with their eyes.

"But we don't have to hide it anymore—that's a big plus." Suzaku said while slipping his fingers around Lelouch's arm and eventually sliding downward into his hand. Lelouch sighed, but complied. He was still nervous about what the gi rls had said to him.

"We shouldn't be so open in public though…" Lelouch said with his previous doubt riddling his face, but Suzaku looked down into his now nervous eyes and lost his smile.

"So I'm not allowed to kiss you here? Shame…" He said with a hint of satire in his tone, and Lelouch smacked him over the shoulder as the sound of their new unofficial fan club members squealed from all corners of the room. Obviously, the slap had no affect on the slightly taller of the two due to their opposing statures in physical fitness, which left Lelouch to sigh and return to his former position leaning into their arms.

They entered the Council room locked together, which earned them a raised eyebrow from Milly and a giggle from Shirley, while Rivalz did not seem to even notice their presence, as did Nina.

"Oh ho, the new couple is being open about their relationship?" She asked with a snicker embedded in her voice, to which Lelouch responded to by removing his hand from Suzaku's and striding across the room to put down his bag and greet the Club.

"Why bother hiding when everyone knows?" Suzaku questioned her while Lelouch returned and sat beside him.

Upon their sitting on the table, Rivalz raised his head with a look of aggravation on his face. "Hey, I'm trying to actually do club activities here!" Shirley nearly spat at him.

"We all know you're doing your lab write-ups, Rivalz, cut the act!" She said, nagging him with her finger wagging in his face as if punishing a little kid. He blushed only slightly before lowering his gaze back to his work, but his eyes caught the unusual closeness between Lelouch and Suzaku.

"Hey, what's goin' on with you two?" He asked with confusion written on his face. Shirley and Milly then proceeded to both smack him with whatever papers they had on hand.

"Geez, Rivalz, don't you watch the school news?" Shirley complained, and Milly grinned widely.

"Lelouch and Suzaku are the new lovey-dovey couple on campus!" Milly exclaimed loudly and lovingly while the boys sitting on the table changed their focus towards Rivalz.

Rivalz's expression must have gone through about five emotions before settling on pure shock. "Lelouch?! Suzaku?! What…?! G-gay?!" He said with disbelief, and ultimately freaked out before collapsing onto the table with a groan. "Geez, Lelouch and Suzaku, I shoulda known. Well, Lelouch I can understand…" He said while shaking his head, and when Suzaku and Lelouch caught each other's eyes as they turned to each other, they laughed heartily, and soon everyone on the council joined in. Except for a peculiar lack of Nina's weak chuckle that only Lelouch, being paranoid, noticed. Lelouch wondered about her momentarily, before snapping back into the casual air of the Student Council classroom.

* * *

Nina watched in shock as Lelouch and Suzaku sat by each other so closely. The way they hung off each other was so for bidden to her. What was Lelouch doing going out with an Eleven? Elevens were the bottom of society; surely he could have found a nice Britannian boy to pleasure him?

"I should get going to my hearing then; I've been in so much trouble with the teachers lately because of work cutting into my school time." Suzaku complained while rubbing the back of his neck, and Lelouch leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Kissed him! How could he kiss that _terrorist?_ Honorary Britannian or not, he must be an eyesore to the Britannian society, so why was Lelouch stooping so low? It infuriated and confused her.

"I'll see you later," Lelouch said with love in his voice, a sound all of the Student Council had yet to have heard come from the cold teenager's lips to anyone other than Nunnally. Suzaku nodded with a quick heartfelt smile and turned on his heel to walk to his appointed classroom.

The exchange of devotion set the rest of the Council jeering and laughing at Lelouch, to which he weakly defended himself from, but Nina was hiding her anger inside. She simply could not understand how an attractive Britannian boy like Lelouch could fall in love with such scum of society.

She shook her head as she devised a plan. She had to save Lelouch from the damnation he was going to endure should he keep this relationship up.

* * *

Muahaha, beware the crazy Nina monster! I tend to assume that along with being xenophobic, she could very well be a bit homophobic. I took a few risks in this chapter, but I guess I could argue that it is my own story? I like angst _and _fluff, so both moods weasel their ways into my story, if you didn't notice. Please do take the time to review!

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	5. Meeting On The Rooftop

Update! Have fun. I've read over this so many times I don't even want to do a pre-posting check, so please excuse me if there are more mistakes than usual. It is Friday, after all. (That's it.)

* * *

**Chapter 5- Meeting on the Rooftop**

Suzaku frowned as he composed a huge breakfast for Lelouch of his own will one morning before school would later begin.

"Shouldn't you start buying bigger clothes? You're starting to grow a little…" Suzaku asked his half-asleep lover.

Lelouch yawned as he poured the drinks for the two of them—he'd convinced Suzaku to at least let him set the table. "I know I should, but it's kind of embarrassing." He admitted, and Suzaku laughed softly at him. Deeming the pancakes finished to his perfection, Suzaku brought the pan over to Lelouch and flipped it onto his plate, which was already peppered with assorted breakfast foods Suzaku had considered necessary for Lelouch, who had been suffering from breakfast food cravings for the past couple of days.

"You didn't have to do this, Suzaku." Lelouch said, smiling into his warm green eyes.

"Yes, I did," Suzaku countered, "You've been asking for all of these things over the past two days. Every conversation that's come up over the past forty-eight hours has included some assortment of breakfast food items." Suzaku said with fake-annoyance in his voice, to which Lelouch lowered his head with a guilty blush and mumbled an apology.

Suzaku leveled Lelouch's gaze with his own with his pointer finger pushing up his chin and gave him a quick, tender kiss before unlocking and pointing at the untouched plate of food before the both of them. "Now eat." He commanded, and Lelouch voluntarily agreed.

The two ate in silence for most of the meal, one ridiculing the other playfully on occasion. When their breakfast was finally polished off, courtesy of the pregnant of the two, Suzaku laughed at the fact that every spot of food had been consumed. "Edible?" He asked, to which Lelouch replied,

"Very much so."

"Ah," Suzaku exclaimed before standing from his seat, moving over to Lelouch's side and reaching down into a passionate kiss. They both closed their eyes as their kiss deepened, and Lelouch moaned quietly just before Suzaku broke them apart, leaving them both gasping for air. However, before moving his face away from Lelouch's, Suzaku licked his lips before grabbing another sample, and concluding with, "Syrupy." Lelouch gave him a strange look that always managed to make Suzaku laugh in delight at the sight of it, and gave him one last peck on the lips before rising up and leaving Lelouch with a deep red blush planted firmly on his cheeks.

We'll be late if we keep this up," Suzaku said as he grabbed his bag as well as his coat, as the late November air was starting to freeze up over the past few weeks. Lelouch stuttered in his place at the table before Suzaku gave him a nagging look, as if he wanted him to hurry up.

"I-it's your fault if we're late! I'm not getting blamed for this!" He complained as he hurriedly threw on his uniform and coat. Although, when he went to button his pants, he found them almost too small for his slightly swelled stomach. "They were fine a week ago, I swear…" He muttered, and Suzaku laughed jovially before opening the door for his flustered lover.

"What? You're not the one with a spawn growing in your body." He growled, to which Suzaku merely snickered and pulled him close with his arm around Lelouch's waist. Lelouch had no choice but to comply.

* * *

"Lelouch," Shirley said with a sense of shock, "Do you have like, a food baby?" She said with her eyebrow raised in question. She was leaning over in her seat to catch a good angle of his seemingly-larger stomach with wide eyes.

"No, Shirley, you're crazy." Lelouch said with a straight face while Suzaku held in his snorts as well as he could.

"No, I really think you do! I thought that only happened to gi rls…!" Shirley said with a giggle, still a bit surprised over her discovery. Suzaku came from behind Lelouch with an obvious laugh hiding in his throat and snaked his arms around Lelouch's stomach, feeling the bulge that was definitely not just a food baby.

While Suzaku was having fun with this 'food baby assumption', Lelouch was most definitely peeved, and sighed with a frown as he muttered, "Suzaku, stop it, I know you love to humiliate me, but not today."

Suzaku made a noise that suggested disappointment. "Not today? Why, food baby's controlling your emotions?" He said teasingly, but this caused Lelouch to snap.

Lelouch angrily pulled Suzaku's arms off of him and stormed out of the room in exaggerated frustration. Shirley and Suzaku simultaneously looked to each other with questioning looks, when Milly came trumpeting in.

"What did you guys do to Lelouch? He looked to be about to spit fire and shoot molten lava out of his ears." She said with a confident tone, but when Shirley and Suzaku looked to each other and laughed ashamedly, Milly opened her eyes out of her previous pose and scanned the room. "Hey, where's Nina?" She asked.

Shirley and Suzaku both shrugged their shoulders.

* * *

Lelouch stomped out of the Student Council room with his eyes flaring in rage. Who was Suzaku to make fun of him like that? _'It isn't my damn fault Suzaku decided to put this thing into me!'_ Lelouch complained while preventing the angry tears from spilling from his infuriated eyes. He was obviously sending out a terrible vibe, because a huge pathway was made through the sea of people in the hallway as he wandered to nowhere.

The hallway seemed to extend for forever as he tried to make his way to the private boys' bathroom to calm himself down. _'It's just the spawn. The spawn's doing this to me,'_ He convinced himself as he took deep breaths to stop himself from overreacting too badly, but as he was concentrating on this he smashed into someone in his path and sent her almost falling to the floor.

He quickly grabbed for her arm and steadied her before he realized who it was. "Nina?" He asked, and pulled her completely to her feet gently. The timid gi rl looked down and straightened out her skirt.

"Lelouch. I, uh, I…" She seemed to be trying to tell him something through quiet stutters he could make out, so he made sure to listen intently for her soft voice. "Can you meet me on the roof during the lunch period?" She asked quietly, to which he nodded with a smile.

"Sure, Nina, but what's all this about?" She shook her head and made her way to the opposite direction he was headed, probably going to the Student Council room he had just come from in a fit of rage.

Lelouch sighed mostly to himself. _'I should go back and apologize…'_ He internally concluded, and turned on his heel for the Council room once more.

The door slid open much faster than he had anticipated, which left Lelouch standing there awkwardly in front of the room full of people. Suzaku's attention was immediately snapped to Lelouch as his head shot up. He rose from his seat in one swoop and strode over to Lelouch to pull him in.

"I'm sorry, Lelouch, that was uncalled for, I—" Suzaku started apologizing with his hand stroking his raven hair, but Lelouch pulled his hand from his head sternly.

"No, _I'm_ sorry. _I_ was uncalled for." He corrected with an apologetic smile.

"So, uh… how's the weather?" Shirley added, hoping to kill the awkward mood everyone but the lovebirds were encountered with.

"Pretty okay for near-winter, don't you think?" Rivalz said, and the whole company nodded in agreement.

Lelouch caught the nervous eye of Nina briefly before letting it go. He wondered what it was that the shy gi rl could possibly seek from him, up there on the roof in a few hours.

* * *

Lelouch slowly made his way up the endless stairs to the roof, the place he often went to so as to escape classes. He didn't want to be completely worthless and reach the top breathless from the effort, now.

He opened the door slowly, but was completely caught off guard when stern hands wrenched at his arms and pulled him through, causing him to yelp as he landed on the ground with his arms tangled behind him. His eyes widened when he saw Nina, scared but unstable-looking, standing in front of the group that had previously taken him out with their bullying.

"This is what you wanted me for?" He asked as calmly as he could muster, but as Nina nodded, two more gi rls came up behind him and held together his arms and legs. He was now rather terrified of what they were going to do to him.

"Lelouch… why are you dating that Eleven?" Nina asked, her hands shaking and eyes opened wide. Lelouch hesitated as he tried to think of an answer, but this only earned him a quick and painful kick to the back, sending him sprawling out onto the concrete flooring of the roof, face-first. He felt his eyes almost roll back as he felt extreme pain and dizziness wash over him after coming in contact with the hard ground at his head.

"Answer her, . Why are you feigning innocence as you that… that thing?!"

Lelouch winced as a kicked the back of his head, more pain into his skull than he thought was even possible. He wanted to scream, scream for Suzaku, but he couldn't. Something was preventing his voice from uttering even a sound.

Nina fell to her knees and looked right into Lelouch's pain-filled eyes with her wild ones. "He's just an Eleven! Couldn't you have found a better person? A Britannian, like you?!" She was slowly losing her sanity as Lelouch simply stared into her face, emotionless and a bit intimidating.

She continued. "You're so much better than him! How can you look at him like he's your equal?!" She asked desperately while Lelouch paled from the spitting headache and repeated winces as it came in strong waves.

His eyes suddenly went wild as he curled his body inward. He'd completely forgotten that there was more than just himself in danger here.

He shook off the notion (figuratively, physically doing so would have sent him into huge spirals of pain) and kept his position as tightly as he could, to save the spawn inside of him. The previous leader of the cult jerked his head up to hers by a handful of his hair, a swift motion that nearly made him lose his breakfast. She slapped him again, hard, across the face, twice.

Lelouch closed his eyes and wished for it to be over soon. "How can I persuade you… How can I get you to understand what problems you're causing yourself, Lelouch?!" Nina screamed, but once again received no answer. Because Lelouch could barely keep his surroundings straight from all the bashings his head had recently gotten, he could not properly form a sentence to counter the gi rls as he simply sat there, their victim.

Lelouch tried to sit up, but the same gi rl who initially pulled him in swiftly kicked him in the side, knocking him over abruptly and slamming his head once again into the ground. This actually did manage to knock him out for a few moments, before he opened his eyes bitterly and evaded the lead gi rl's fist in time to avoid a blow.

She straddled him and cupped a hand over his mouth before he could successfully yell for help. He started to yell into her fingers before finding it useless and smashing his eyes shut in pain.

"No, wait!!" Nina yelled, and Lelouch could successfully say that she'd just saved him from a great deal of pain. "Don't hurt him that badly, he still has a chance to repent..!" She said, and the gi rls gained looks of frustration and impatience as they looked to their new leader.

"But he ruined our lives! For years we waited for the day when he might ask us to a dance or festival or something, and now he finally decides to tell us that he's gay?! He deserves all the pain we can give him!" And with that, the grabbed for his throat. Lelouch desperately choked for air as the remaining s cheered her on timidly. He reached for her arms and tried to save himself by scratching at her arms, but to no avail.

She let him go just before he passed out from the lack of oxygen. The gi rl smirked in victory as she whipped out a pocketknife, showed it to her crowd and put it to his throat.

Nina took the chance she found to leap over to the gi rl and wrench the pocketknife out of her hand and push her off of Lelouch, who coughed multiple times as he gripped his neck, where a small unintended wound had begun to leak blo od. "Why do you have a pocketknife here? Isn't that illegal?! This is getting out of hand!" Nina argued as she struggled to hold the gi rl back.

While the gi rls argued over what they should do, Lelouch was desperately reaching for his cell phone with trembling fingers. Finally dialing Suzaku's number, he let it ring a few times before he was about to hang it up and try a different plan, when Suzaku's urgent voice greeted him. "Hello? Lelouch, where are you?" Suzaku's voice was troubled as Lelouch forced his brain into working despite the migraine.

"Suzaku, on the roof…" He said softly, barely above a whisper, his voice hoarse from the beating his throat had taken earlier. To Lelouch's dismay, he heard the empty dial tone ring in his ear. "Suzaku?" He pleaded, even though he knew he was gone. After closing his phone and putting it back in his pocket, Lelouch crawled his way over to the brick barrier surrounding the roof and rested his aching head against it. It was no pillow, but it was enough to lull him into a peaceful trance.

* * *

Suzaku had asked may surrounding people if they knew where his absent lover was. He was given many sympathetic no's, to which he nodded and thanked anyway. Though he was about to just call Lelouch and give up on his adventure, his phone, as if on cue, started to ring.

He grabbed the phone from his pocket and the device recognized the number to be Lelouch's, which he immediately answered. "Hello? Lelouch, where are you?" he asked, noticing the worry in his own tone.

In barely a speaking tone, from inside Suzaku's phone, he heard a soft, fatigued version of his lover's voice speak to him. "Suzaku, on the roof…" It said very subtly, and though he managed to only catch '-n the roof…' he could figure out the rest.

He smashed his phone closed and dashed through the hallway toward the huge staircase that lead to the roof he supposed Lelouch was telling him about, and glided up the stairs with ease. He noticed many gi rls leaving from the roof in question, some of which seemed familiar from the previous acci dent—

And it all hit him like a ton of bricks. His eyes widening, he managed to increase his speed to an even faster rate than before, now flying over two or three steps at a time. He threw open the door, only to find a gi rl, Nina, and Lelouch, all on the roof, as promised.

He promptly rushed over to Lelouch and scooped him up in his arms. Lelouch was so unfocused he'd barely noticed he'd been taken off the floor, but the cut in his neck made him flinch and grab for the open wound, hissing as his raw hand made it sting mildly.

Suzaku scanned over the unconscious boy's body, noticing the many welts and bruises, and suddenly, his mind went wild with assumptions. _'What if they kicked him just the right way? How did they get a knife into school?!'_ Suzaku leapt through the school with anger and worry burning in his eyes, a concentrated frown on his face. He paid extra attention to be careful with Lelouch hanging limp in his arms as he ran through Ashford Academy, desperate for the nurse.

"Suzaku?" Said boy looked down into Lelouch's eyes momentarily to find them open and looking right back. Suzaku hushed him. He was silently glad that the hallways had thinned out for lunch time and little to no people were in his way.

As he dashed by the Student Council on his way there, Milly caught the flash of brown and black as he blurred past the door. Shirley must have noticed it too, because she immediately jumped from her seat and ran for the door.

"Suzaku!" she yelled down the hallway, but when she was about to ask him where he was going, she caught sight of the Britannian boy in his arms.

"Lelouch…?" She breathed, and ran for the couple as Suzaku dashed into the nurse's office with a quick,

"Sorry, Shirley!" And delivered Lelouch to the nurse of Ashford Academy.

* * *

The nurse tediously wound gauze around Lelouch's neck as he sat up, leaning over from the pain in his back with a constant wince twitching in his eye.

Suzaku had later found the multitude of large bruises covering the boy's back when they'd taken his shirt off for a quick once-over and guessed that it was why Lelouch's regularly straight posture was so poorly slouched. A few of the blotchy black and blue marks had also been found on his upper chest and arms, but to his relief his stomach area was quite untouched.

When the bruises were found on the boy's arms, Suzaku had guessed that he'd been protecting his stomach with all his strength, which, had it not been such a discouraging situation, would probably have caused the Japanese boy to smile warmly at the thought of him actually caring about the 'spawn', as he often called it, inside of him.

It had taken Lelouch about fifteen minutes to snap out of his blank stare and back into reality, where he found Shirley and Suzaku chatting quietly at his bedside in the nurse's office. He was going to question his location and what was going on, but he suddenly felt the splitting tingle in his neck and grabbed for it with a moan.

Suzaku was quickly leaning over him with big troubled eyes, Shirley quite close behind him. Lelouch took a moment to focus into the light and opened his mouth to speak, but found Suzaku there instead, and accepted the hard kiss Suzaku was pushing on his lips.

When Suzaku had finally released him from the improper public display, he frowned and sent him a weak glare, which earned him a nervous chuckle emitting from Suzaku's mouth. "I'm sorry, I guess I was just so worried…" He said sheepishly, letting Shirley take over.

"Lulu, what did those gi rls do to you? Do you know their names? They need to be suspended immediately!" Shirley fussed, grabbing a notebook and pen to get down the delinquents' names.

Lelouch finally heard his own horridly scratchy voice answer, still a bit confused, "No, I don't know any of them, but I can tell you a few of their appearances..." He trailed off, trying to think back on what they looked like.

Unfortunately, when he attempted to sit up, the rapid motion made him dizzy and Lelouch swayed a bit, Suzaku catching him before he could do any more damage to his injured body. Lelouch sighed in an exasperated voice.

"I won't get better if you baby me, now let me go." He glared at Suzaku's strong hands on his shoulders, and they slowly removed themselves from his body, but Lelouch instantly felt badly when he caught Suzaku's 'worried face'. "Suzaku, can you please not look at me like that?" He asked softly, silently pleading with the standing Japanese boy. He ha ted it when Suzaku worried too much about him.

"They could have hurt you really badly, or rather worse than they already have, they could have hurt it too!" Suzaku nearly yelled, and Lelouch's expression widened before snapping down to the floor in slight shame.

"I'm sorry, Suzaku." He whispered. Suzaku sighed hard and rubbed his forehead with his hand to massage his headache and dispel the worry. As the whole display continued, Shirley gave Suzaku a questioning glance.

"What's 'it', Suzaku?" She asked inno cently, and Suzaku mentally cursed himself for slipping.

"Ah, it's nothing Shirley, don't worry about it. Shouldn't you get back to the Council and tell everyone what's going on? I'm sure they're wondering." He mentioned with a smile, which although going with a fake statement, was a genuine one.

Although she hesitated, Shirley nodded, and slowly walked out of the office.

Now finally alone, Suzaku kissed Lelouch once again, this time much shorter, and put on his serious face. "Lelouch, do you really not know who did this?" He asked softly with a hand on Lelouch's cheek, but after being asked Suzaku removed his hand from his face, discouraged.

"I'll report them if I feel it necessary." Lelouch said with an air of finality that almost made Suzaku want to obey. Though not fully convinced, Suzaku left it alone and kissed Lelouch on the forehead, pushing him back into his bed with his free hand.

"Rest, you need it." Suzaku now commanded, and Lelouch, though reluctant, eventually did fall into much- needed albeit rickety sleeping patterns.

* * *

I am so mean! Sorry, I wanted to do it. At least I didn't leave you on a cliffhanger? I don't think... Please review, for me! And for Lelouch! (I can't promise smooth sailing the rest of the fic, however, but that would make it less interesting, right? To me, anyway.)

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	6. The Secret Birthday Present

Bonus chapter time! Hope you enjoy the lack of plot substance. I realized not long ago that I completely skipped over Lelouch's birthday in my initial writing of this fanfiction, so I've written a Bonus chapter for that very purpose! Thanks for reading and reviewing as always, and I hope you enjoy this installment!

* * *

**Bonus Chapter- The Secret Birthday Present**

"Guess what?" Suzaku came skipping into Lelouch's room as he sang in greeting late on a Saturday morning. Lelouch groaned in response from beneath the swaddling blankets thrown about and disheveled by strange sleeping patterns. Suzaku knew that whenever Lelouch slept in late, he thrashed about in his sleep past eight o' clock in the morning. Suzaku tended to wake himself before such times on weekends.

"It's nearly eleven o' clock! You have to wake up anyway." Suzaku announced brightly as he pulled the many layers of sheets away from the body beneath them. He was met instantly with a sleepy glare through amethyst eyes.

"It's the weekend. I can wake up whenever I want." Lelouch countered in a whining tone as he yanked the covers back over his face and turned on his side to face away from Suzaku. He heard a muffled sigh from the outside world that undeniably came from his lover's lips.

"Do you know what day it is?" Lelouch listened as Suzaku took a new approach. "Today is December first." Suzaku answered himself.

"What of it?" Lelouch mumbled as he peeked from beneath the comforter, pulling his barrier down to just over his nose.

"The last I remembered, your birthday was in five days." Suzaku now focused into Lelouch's exposed eyes.

"What of it?" Lelouch repeated, encouraging his Japanese boy to respond by his monotone question.

"It's almost your birthday, that's what's of it. So today I'm taking you out somewhere."

"Out?" Lelouch sat up in his bed with his eyebrow raised. "For what?" Suzaku laughed and cupped Lelouch's cheek with one hand, leaning in close to his face to watch him blush.

"For your birthday! And you say I'm the idiot." Suzaku sighed in fake exasperation. Lelouch almost growled and shook his head violently, somewhat making Suzaku remove his hand from his face.

"No, I meant what kind of somewhere is somewhere?" Lelouch asked softly. Suzaku's hand slid its way back into place at the nape of his neck, where it played with a strand of his unkempt hair.

"Somewhere." Suzaku sung quietly. Lelouch laughed and smiled into a deep kiss that did not last long enough. When they broke away, Lelouch frowned a bit.

"Can't we stay in?" He almost pleaded with his eyes alone. Suzaku shook his head.

"You're going to be stuck in this house for a long while in a very short amount of time. Don't you want to get out a few more times before you're stuck in here?" Suzaku tried to negotiate.

"I don't like to go out anyway." Lelouch tried to keep a straight face for his argument, but couldn't manage it every time Suzaku decided to do something to throw him off. He hadn't the willpower to stop the giggles from bubbling up his throat as Suzaku's lips brushed over his neck. "That tickles, stop it." He slurred, not sounding quite as commanding as he had intended.

"Didn't you ever learn not to tell your enemies where your ticklish spots are?" Lelouch was caught off guard when he remembered having fights with Nunnally, and thus was sent spiraling into the unbearable fits he had to reduce himself to, to avoid laughing too hard. He bit his lip as Suzaku crept up his jaw line. He squeezed his eyes shut and released a high pitched whine when he reached his ear. "Stop it!" He tried to command as he swatted at Suzaku in an attempt to expel him. Suzaku obeyed and laughed at the victory he had achieved through Lelouch's uncomfortable expression.

* * *

"Onii-sama?" Nunnally whispered as she knocked on her brother's door. She almost gasped when she heard a suppressed squeal through the thick door. "What on Earth?" She whispered to herself, but when she reached for the button to open the door, she heard the muffled tone of her brother nearly yell.

She opened the door immediately. "Onii-sama?" She asked a bit urgently. She was surprised to receive two answers.

"Nunnally?" Both Suzaku and Lelouch responded. She heard a ruffle of bed sheets before another response.

"Ah, Nunnally, sorry I slept in so late." She heard her brother speak to her, but she felt his tone was a bit flustered.

"What sorts of things are you doing to my Onii-sama in here?" Nunnally scolded Suzaku. She heard a weak cough showing his discomfort. "I guess you two could get away with a lot of things with only me in the house." Nunnally continued. She giggled and found delight in the awkward noises Lelouch produced upon the accusation.

"No, Nunnally, I promise!" Lelouch sputtered, not quite forming the coherent sentence he envisioned in his mind.

"I'll leave you alone then!" She chirped before waving good bye and closing the door.

* * *

Lelouch groaned and fell back against his bed as soon as he heard the door slide shut. He tried to block the noise that he determined was Sayoko singing as she flitted about the house. "Why do I have to live with morning people?" He complained as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"It's hardly considered morning anymore. You're just stubborn." Suzaku noted with a finger poised upward in thought.

"Leave me alone." Lelouch countered weakly.

"Stubborn!" Suzaku sang back. Lelouch forfeited as he sighed and allowed a neutral expression to calm into his features.

A comfortable silence took hold of the room for a few moments. "So where are we going?" Lelouch asked of Suzaku once more.

"I don't want to spoil the surprise, really. You'll have to find out yourself." Suzaku taunted his lover, who glared at him in malice. What he'd said was true. He had a special location in mind.

"Lead me away, then." Lelouch held out his arms and closed his eyes, hoping for help up.

"Don't you have to get ready first?" Suzaku tilted his head to the side.

"That wasn't completely literal, Suzaku."

"Oh, right, sorry."

Lelouch sighed and pulled himself back to an upright position to lean on Suzaku's shoulder. "Give me a half hour." He breathed.

"For what?" Suzaku was confused.

"To get ready!" Lelouch glared at Suzaku, who laughed sheepishly and asked for forgiveness with his smile. As always, Lelouch could not refuse that face an apology, which he mumbled almost incoherently.

"I'll leave you alone now. Otherwise it will take you twice as long to get ready." Suzaku earned himself another glare from the other. "I am distracting." He admitted with a shrug. Lelouch shoved him over like a punching bag- Suzaku's body managed to snap back into its previous posture somehow.

Upon returning close to Lelouch, Suzaku snuck in a quick peck to his cheek before jumping from his seat and waving him off as he went out of Lelouch's room and into the kitchen to chat with Nunnally. Even such an inno cent gesture as that was enough to give Lelouch a significant blush upon his cheeks.

He sat in a daze for a bit before snapping himself out of it. Lelouch kept himself occupied with guessing where Suzaku was going to take him as he showered and dressed for such outing. Apparently, it was something good, as Suzaku seemed a bit proud of himself every time the topic was brought up.

"Come on, we'll be late!" Suzaku ushered everyone out of the house. This gave Lelouch another clue as to where they were going. Apparently there was some sort of time limit. The data was duly noted in Lelouch's head as he was rushed out the door and into a car to go who knows where.

* * *

"Suzaku, I hardly think it's necessary for me to cover my eyes." Lelouch complained, feeling like an idiot as he held his hands up to cover his vision.

"It adds to the suspense!" Nunnally said to Lelouch with a giggle, convincing him instantly to keep up the game and put his hands back firmly over his face. Suzaku nodded, even though no one in the car could see the action except maybe Sayoko.

"We're here!" Suzaku said excitedly, ushering Lelouch out of the car. "Oh, and you can stop covering your eyes now." Lelouch did as such and found himself in front of a familiar building.

"Why are we at a museum? That doesn't sound like the sort of place you would want to go to." Lelouch asked of Suzaku, who smiled in a way that let him know he wasn't going to spill the answer, so he sighed and followed him inside. "Where are Nunnally and Sayoko going?"

"They went to the park just down the road. Wouldn't it be sort of cruel to bring Nunnally to a museum? She'd get so bored." Lelouch shrugged.

"We've been here before. I just tell her what interesting things are behind the glass." Lelouch smiled at the memory of describing in excited detail what had been held behind barriers and glass to Nunnally, who would smile at the imagery.

"Sometimes I'm jealous that you have a sister. She's quite lucky to have you, Lulu." Suzaku laughed at Lelouch's expression after having been called by his nickname. Before, when he'd first tried using it around him, Suzaku would be verbally attacked. He supposed Lelouch had grown more accustomed to it, as he had with Shirley, and didn't feel the need to yell when he said it anymore. Unfortunately, the expression melted as Lelouch found an inner peace at the museum's quiet atmosphere and unconsciously wrapped his hand around Suzaku's. Both smiled.

They spent only a few moments at each interesting thing. Lelouch, being curious, always wanted to stay longer than Suzaku did, and tended to be dragged away most of the time. Lelouch supposed it had something to do with this trip's main destination.

Both boys were walking hand in hand without a main focus on any artifact when Lelouch caught a sign from the corner of his eye. "A new exhibit for Knightmare Frames?" He noted the arrow pointing down the hall and followed it with his eyes to another sign, instructing them to turn left. "Does this have to do with what you've been waiting for all day?" He asked, but Suzaku did not answer his question. Only smiled, which was odd.

"Shall we go in?" Suzaku asked, an arm extended to lead the way down the hall. Lelouch did not answer verbally and instead started walking to the exhibit's room. Suzaku chuckled under his breath and followed.

"But the sign says it isn't open yet." Lelouch pointed at the sign saying that the exhibit was scheduled for opening a few days after his birthday. Suzaku said nothing, but smiled as he pulled Lelouch through the doorway.

The room was more like a warehouse than anything. Once Lelouch walked through the doorway, he looked up and around him to find that the ceiling must have been four stories up. Some of it was still in construction, but it seemed as if walkways were to encircle the exhibit from the other floor levels of the museum.

From the ceiling hung some of the first Knightmare Frame units. They hardly fit into the same category as the ones commonly pictured, as they appeared to just be fighter planes. Suzaku noted that looking up into the ceiling at just the right angle almost made it look as if they were going to land right on his head, which convinced him not to look too long.

Once they rounded the end of the hallways leading into the exhibit, they both began to recognize some of the Frames they'd seen before. Panels with information on the Knightmare Frame's history were nailed into the wall behind each roped off Knightmare's exhibit.

Suzaku pointed at one of the earlier s nearby. "I had to use one of those for work once. They're very outdated, so there isn't much air circulation and it gets hot in there fast." He laughed airily, but he was the only one finding humor in the subject.

"They're so dangerous." Lelouch mumbled, displeased. Suzaku squeezed his hand a little, but didn't say anything back. The two moved along the wall for a little while before Lelouch was interested in a strangely-placed thick column in the middle of the room. He wasn't sure whether it was for decoration or not, but confirmed that it was another part of the exhibit at the sight of an open door on the opposite side. "Can we go in there?" He pointed, and Suzaku nodded. A plaque above the doorway read 'The Early History of Knightmare Frame Manufacturing'. Lelouch paid no mind to it as he passed through the threshold.

Inside the secret room there lay hundreds of instruments and inscriptions, but what caught his attention was the huge Knightmare Frame in the middle of the room, glistening from the lights concentrated on it alone. He knew this one.

Lelouch hadn't realized he'd been walking forward until he almost hit the pedestal dedicated for the Frame. His suspicions were confirmed. "Suzaku, why is the Ganymede here?" He asked quietly, not quite sure what he was thinking.

"The Ashfords donated all of their past equipment to the museum not too long ago. They figured they didn't need it anymore." Lelouch wasn't quite listening to him as he traced the engraved 'M' of his mother's name carved into the plaque as its official pilot.

"And they didn't feel the need to ask me?" He asked of Suzaku, who had no answer. "I suppose it does more good in a museum than it does in Ashford's garage. What are we going to use for Milly's crazy festivals now?"

Suzaku shrugged. "I think they have an MR-1 in storage. Milly just liked having you pilot the Ganymede for the sake of reminiscence, I suppose." Lelouch started to laugh, but it died into a simple smile.

"Or she just likes putting me in interesting situations." Lelouch opted, which Suzaku agreed to. "I remember when Nunnally and I were outside the Aries Palace and we could see just the tip of the Ganymede from over the fence as she was sparring with Jeremiah." He smiled up at the Knightmare Frame.

"And I remember when she took on some of the other consorts when they insulted us in the Knightmare itself. She made a big mess of the grounds and only managed to make more people angry with her, but she didn't mind." Lelouch shook his head. "I would bet she did it on purpose, just to bother them all in the first place." He laughed. "So was this my birthday present?"

"Part of it." Suzaku strode over beside Lelouch. "I wanted to give you this, too." He reached into his pocket and dug around for something seemingly small. Suzaku expressed relief as he found his present. He took Lelouch's hand and delicately dropped a necklace's chain into Lelouch's palm, the Ganymede's key strung to the thin silver matching the key's trimmings.

"How did you get this?" Lelouch asked quietly as he studied the long-lost key now safe in his hand.

"Milly asked me if you'd want it, so it's a gift from her and me." Suzaku smiled, and when Lelouch looked back up, the smile spread to his own lips.

"Thank you, Suzaku." Lelouch wrapped his arms around Suzaku's neck in a secure hug, the key wound through his fingers tightly. Though Suzaku wasn't quite expecting it, he hugged back equally strong.

The two of them made their way out of the museum locked together as if the world was going to try to tear them away. They met up with Nunnally and Sayoko, and just as soon the sun set on December first, awaiting December second.

"Do you want to do anything else on your last big day out?" Suzaku asked Lelouch as the whole gang walked home in the amber sunset's glow.

"Definitely not." Lelouch grumbled. "I want to spend it with you." He nearly whispered, looking away as he felt Suzaku's smile heating up the air in his ten foot radius. Or maybe that was just the blush on his own cheeks as Suzaku laughed and kissed him.

* * *

Shorter bonus chapter with no relevance to my story! I just wanted to write something without angst. Well, the backstory here is a bit darker, but I tried to skirt over that.

And just in case it's confusing, I'll note that in this fanfiction's universe, the only difference is that Lelouch is not Zero and has not met C.C./gained a geass/created the Black Knights, though the events related to these topics did exist. Basically someone else is Zero instead of Lelouch. An example is in a later chapter I hint that Euphemia has died, but Lelouch has not killed her since he is not Zero. All of Lelouch's background is still retained. I'm sorry if this comes off as confusing, feel free to ask me if you have more questions via PM! (sorry if I just gave you a spoiler by the way, but I'm pretty sure I warned to that in the first chapter...)

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	7. I'm pregnant

Hey, update! Exciting.

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 7- "Shirley, I'm pregnant."**

"Suzaku, what is this?" Lelouch asked Suzaku as he awoke from his nap on the couch, where he mysteriously found a huge bag blown up with—from what he gathered, homemade—chocolate chip cookies.

Suzaku leaned his head in with a questioning glance, but upon finding the bag of treats in Lelouch's hand, he waved it off. "Shirley made them for us." Lelouch was not convinced.

"She's a terrible cook. Are you sure these aren't loaded with lethal poisons?" He asked Suzaku mostly seriously, to which he shrugged and strode over to the couch next to him.

"I think Milly helped out." Suzaku added, but Lelouch was if possible even less convinced that they were safe now.

"All the more reason to second-guess their edibility." Lelouch muttered, and Suzaku laughed heartily before taking a cookie out and sampling it before Lelouch could protest.

"They seem fine, Lelouch, they're just cookies." He exaggerated his voice, and stuffed the unfinished cookie into Lelouch's mouth, who, after realizing what sort of mess he would conjure should he spit it out, accepted it.

Lelouch took his time chewing and swallowing. "Not a bad addition to our junk food cabinets, eh?" Suzaku mocked him now twice in a row by emphasizing the plural form of that word. Lelouch sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I've told you a million times, it's not my fault, it's the baby's." Lelouch said before grabbing a second cookie from the bag.

Unfortunately, Lelouch had grown just too much to successfully feign being pregnant with food, which meant no more Ashford Academy. He would regularly lounge about and do nothing productive, which was quite frustrating for the teen. Staying still for days on end was not his idea of fun.

"We need to get bigger clothes; this is going to be skin- tight in a week." Lelouch complained, pulling at the fabric of his tee-shirt. Suzaku pulled out his cell phone.

"Next week, Tuesday?" Suzaku said quickly, barely giving Lelouch any time to register what had just happened as he pulled up the internal calendar in his cell phone and checked his schedule. Lelouch hit him on the shoulder with his cookie-hand, promptly spilling crumbs all over the Japanese boy's lap.

"What's with you and your technology?" Lelouch asked with a glare, to which Suzaku mirrored as he brushed the crumbs of the cookie on the floor.

"What's with you and your many habits and cravings that try their hardest to kill me every day?" Suzaku asked with the glare still evident in his eyes, but Lelouch uncharacteristically backed down.

"I told you, it's the baby, not me." He said quietly, regret slowly filling into his eyes. Suzaku took it as a cue to embrace the tired boy softly.

"I know, I just like teasing you." Suzaku said within a sigh, and Lelouch smiled faintly as he snuggled into the crook of Suzaku's neck, and the two stayed this way for quite some time before they heard the sound of Nunnally wheeling in from school through the doorway.

* * *

"Onii-sama, I'm home!" Nunnally yelled into the home.

She received a response as her brother's lower voice and Suzaku's excited tone harmonized with a "Welcome home, Nunnally." She heard a giggle and a yelp come from the room; the two boys obviously playing with each other. Nunnally turned her head to behind her wheelchair where Shirley was standing; she had offered today to wheel her home after school, since Lelouch was not in school (nor in the condition) to push her home like usual.

"Shirley, thank you for taking me home." She said with a smile, but Shirley was curious.

"Hey, Nunnally, why can't I ever come visit your brother? He is here, isn't he?" She wildly whipped her head from side to side, looking around the wide hallways of their suite for the absent raven-haired teenager.

"Ah, yes, but he's still very contagious. I don't want you getting his sickness." Nunnally lied with a frown and obvious discomfort, which could also coincidentally pass as concern for her brother.

"Aww, come on, Nunnally! I can at least look at him!" So she ran into the room, and even though Nunnally was shouting after her, nearly begging her to stop, she continued to the living room where the noises from earlier had come from according to her conclusion.

Lelouch and Suzaku had been listening in, and quickly moved to hide Lelouch's bulging stomach. Silently freaking out, the two tried desperately to find something before the loud footsteps reached them, and eventually had to go with a pillow located on the chair across from them. As if on some sort of team, Suzaku leapt for the chair, grabbed the pillow and hurled it across the room before falling into the chair (from the spin he made throwing the pillow), and Lelouch grabbed the pillow from the air and pressed it against himself as Suzaku jumped back to his side, just as Shirley burst in.

"Lulu! Aren't you sick?" Shirley questioned, eyeing Suzaku as he sat pressed up to Lelouch despite whatever terrible illness Lelouch had contracted. Though, now that she thought of it, Lelouch didn't look too terribly sick.

Suzaku laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Ah, I don't get sick easily." He then put his arm tightly around Lelouch's shoulders, pulling him close and planting a kiss on Lelouch's cheek. "And I love you too much to stay away."

"Corny as always," Lelouch muttered audibly, but he could not help but smile despite his lover's idiocy.

What the couple hadn't realized however was that when Suzaku had pulled Lelouch down and shifted his position, his pillow had fallen down from his chest, and Shirley got a full view of his enlarged stomach.

Shirley pointed at Lelouch with confusion and shock on her face. "Whoa, Lulu, that's definitely no food baby!" She said, and Lelouch looked down in horror before smooshing the pillow back up to his chest.

"Shirley, it's not what you think." Suzaku said in a stern uncharacteristic tone that nearly scared Shirley, but Lelouch laughed and said composedly,

"Shirley, I'm pregnant."

Shirley was actually at quite a loss for words. "Like, real pregnant? Like, baby-growing-in-your-body pregnant?!" She asked, her eyes widening in shock as he nodded.

"My God… You're… But you're a guy! How does that work?!" She asked, desperate for an answer.

"It's this new procedure Britannia's come up with that allows gay couples and sterile women to become pregnant." Suzaku explained briefly.

"It's one hundred percent mine and Suzaku's too. It's not a clone or someone else's." Lelouch said with a smile, but Shirley was still a bit too confused to respond properly.

"I've only just found out about the two of you and now… this! Isn't this a bit fast?" Shirley asked, being a bit more serious this time.

"Don't look at me, Suzaku slipped me the process without me knowing." Lelouch mumbled and sent his best glare to his ignorant lover, who laughed nervously once more.

"S-Suzaku! Geez, that's a big deal, Lulu had a right to know!" Shirley said with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Yeah, Suzaku, that was mean." Lelouch complained, pouting his lips dramatically, which Suzaku captured with his own.

"Yes, it was mean, but I know your secret."

"Oh? Please inquire." Lelouch said, a bit curious as to what his secret in question was.

"If I get you in the right places, you have no choice but to comply." Suzaku said lowly, and he nipped at Lelouch's ear, only slightly, but it was enough to send the Britannian boy up from the couch, his spine tingling as he stifled a whimper.

"Suzaku, that was mean too!" Lelouch complained in a high-pitched voice, and Shirley finally giggled so loudly it turned the two boys' attention to her.

"You really get into your own little world when you're together." She said with a smile, which caused the both of them to blush apologetically. "I should leave you to your afternoon, then." She stood to leave, but Lelouch grabbed her sleeve. When she looked down into her eyes, she saw such sad pleading deep in his irises she wondered when she'd ever before seen such emotion in them.

"Please don't let this get anywhere. We know what happened the last time…" He trailed off, not finishing his sentence and glancing at the floor, as everyone understood what he was referring to. Suzaku rubbed his back reassuringly while Shirley gave him a sympathetic smile. Lelouch ha ted sympathy. "Don't look at me like that!" He complained and shrunk into the couch.

"You won't be able to hide away like that soon, Lulu." Shirley said, pointing at his stomach.

"Shut up." He said with a pouting frown, and Shirley giggled once more before turning around and skipping out of the room.

"Goodbye, you guys! Good luck!" She yelled back to them as she waved them off, as well as greeting and leaving Nunnally, who had been hovering in the doorway of the living room as the scene had composed itself.

Shirley left the house in good spirits, albeit flustered. What news she'd been presented with, what a powerful feeling it left in her to feel as if she was holding the world's secret in her very hands!

* * *

"Where are our favorite canoodlers today?" Milly asked enthusiastically, receiving a collaboration of moans.

"Milly, nobody says canoodle anymore." Shirley complained.

"I'm pretty sure that 'canoodlers' isn't even a real term." Rivalz moaned.

"Only those educated well in English even know the word! I'm sure Lulu uses it," Milly said matter-of-factly, before shaking the topic out, literally, "Never mind that, where are they?" She asked again, and a collective of shrugs and half-lidded tired eyes responded.

"I'm going to drag them back by their ears if they're snuggling together peacefully in Lulu's suite as we sit here and work hard for this club we love so very much!" She yelled and pumped a fist in the air, not nearly receiving the same excited aura from her fellow members of the Student Council.

"Don't we have a ton of stuff to do here? We shouldn't worry about them!" Shirley said, trying desperately to defer the topic of Lelouch and Suzaku's absence from Milly's attention. "We should keep working hard here, and make them feel bad for not contributing!" She continued, pumping her own fist in the air.

Milly purred in approval. "I've taught you well, Shirley." She said with a smile, before focusing on yelling out the club's schedule for the day. Shirley sighed in relief internally- she'd finally successfully done something good for once.

* * *

Lelouch moaned noisily as he collapsed onto the bed and rolled over on his back, Suzaku gracefully gliding into the spot next to him. "Suzaku, it's been four and a half months."

"What?" Suzaku asked.

"You asked earlier and I never answered. It's been four and a half months." Lelouch merely repeated, and Suzaku had gotten it now.

"Really? When did you retrace the steps?" Suzaku asked, circling a finger on Lelouch's stomach.

"What do you think I do all day here? Count the tiles on the bathroom floor? There are two hundred thirty-two, by the way." Lelouch said with a mocking tone that only managed to make the Japanese boy laugh and scoot up equal to Lelouch's head and kiss him lightly on the cheek.

"So you have found ways to entertain yourself, I hear." Suzaku said, and Lelouch snorted as he recalled the many things he'd decided to do from the pure boredom of lounging about all day in their large home.

"I may as well have memorized our calendar." Lelouch said with a glare directed towards boredom itself.

"And yet you don't do the laundry." Suzaku sighed lightly, and Lelouch sighed himself as he turned on his side as well, so that now both boys were facing each other.

"Laundry is boring." Lelouch stated adamantly, but Suzaku instantly melted his hard exterior with a quick, inno cent kiss.

Lelouch thought that Suzaku had ended the kiss much earlier than necessary.

So Suzaku left Lelouch there, and began to rapidly change out of his clothes as his lover continued to snap out of the haze he'd left him in slowly and got up himself.

They joined each other in changing into pajamas, then jumping into the bed with all of the lights off.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku whispered a few minutes later, snaking an arm around Lelouch's waist. He heard the Britannian boy sigh as he held Suzaku's hands to his stomach lightly.

"Four and a half months." Lelouch whispered back, and Suzaku smiled widely, pulling Lelouch close to him and tucking his head beneath his chin. They quickly fell asleep together, just the same.

* * *

This day had been quite the adventure for the pregnant of the three inhabitants of the Lamperouge on-campus suite.

First, he'd been forced to go out with Sayoko to grab some things for their baby, which had proven extremely difficult for no logical reason. So many choices and decisions needed to be made; Sayoko was really trying her hardest to scare Lelouch with the extremities of baby-shopping.

He'd come back with a stroller, a few cutesy blankets Sayoko had convinced him to buy, and finally, he'd gotten a crib.

This crib was not just a crib, either.

Lelouch had spotted it in the window of an old—go figure—antique shop. It had the intricate swirls of a lively Victorian mansion, but the slightest touch of nostalgia seemed to pump from its metal bars.

Its metal was rusted, yet not. It was clean as a whistle, but imaginary rust seemed to find its way staining the rods, because it just seemed to fit. What it reminded Lelouch of most was probably his mother. The way its silver bars curved and curled in decorative Gothic design so very lonely-looking, yet managed to make him smile as he stopped to look through the window at his destined piece of furniture, drew him in.

Sayoko had tried to pull him away from the non-cute accessory to no avail, as he stared her straight in the eye with a straightaway dangerous glare and said, "Sayoko. Please." She nodded slightly and let his sleeve go as he slid into the stuffed antique shop and immediately purchased the item for a price he cleverly bargained to nearly half its original price.

And as simple as that, they left.

But this was not the end of Lelouch's troubles this fine Tuesday, oh no. For while he was lounging about the home in the later half of the afternoon, a visitor knocked on his door, albeit timidly.

Lelouch sighed. Answering the door with a bigger than average stomach was extremely tedious. So he made like he was snuggling in a blanket and effectively hid his stomach as he nearly waddled over to the door and opened it, to find quite the unexpected guest.

Nina Einstein.

"Lelouch…" She said, her gaze directed at the floor, and Lelouch kept his face furrowed and displeased, as if in an effort to scare her away. "Why didn't you report me?" She asked, nervous eyes looking up into his stone-cold violet ones.

"Because you were different." Lelouch said, never once backing down on his stare.

Nina's gaze turned desperate. "But I was the one who wanted them to do it! I should have gotten the worst punishment!" She yelled in his face.

"You're smart, Nina." Lelouch said quite softly with his head slightly tilted to the side. He had a recognizable smile on his face, something that Nina hadn't ever found very common and quite so true on the face of Lelouch Lamperouge.

"You don't deserve this punishment. You can do some good for the world, with that brain of yours." He said in a gentle tone once more.

"I…I don't think I fully understand your logic, but…But I will take this as an opportunity to learn from my mistake." Nina nodded, and Lelouch did the same, before stepping down the stairs of Lelouch's home.

"Nina," Lelouch called to her back and waited for her to turn to him, "No punishment will be your punishment." He said, and she nodded before skidding back to the school.

Lelouch sighed and closed his door with a light thud before sliding back inside and falling into the door. Holding his head, he groaned as the room spun just slightly before it successfully leveled out, seconds later. He waited a few extra moments to get his bearings, and started to walk back to the living room, but once again found the room spinning and twirling around him.

"Shit." He muttered as he groped the wall for support, and Lelouch nearly crawled his way into his bedroom. He raised the back of his hand to his forehead to find a fever burning beneath his skin. "Just what I need." He moaned before falling out of focus.

* * *

Suzaku really wanted to _skip_ his way back into the Lamperouge suite from the Student Council room. The day had gone well; he'd gotten acceptable marks on his tests, and had a rather peaceful day at the Student Council meeting after school, a virtue not normally seen. He wanted to spread some of his optimism to Lelouch, if only as he burst through the door and grabbed him by the waist in his joyous outburst. Even just to see his glare, combined with a smile- to know that this annoyance was fake just by that glint of happiness in his Britannian lover's bright eyes.

He noticed Nina leaving from the suite's general direction, which gave him a quick tinge of fear, but he smiled and waved to her, to which she smiled back and nodded. This seemed strange—normally she'd shy away from him, what with her strong xenophobic characteristics, but something seemed a bit more accepting in her glance that lifted his spirits even higher than before.

Now he really did allow a light spring in his steps as he hummed a tune he'd heard Kaguya breathing many years before, his eyes shut serenely despite the biting February wind.

Soon, it would be Valentine's Day—the day for lovers, the day for singles, and the day for a bubbling happiness that always seemed to rumble in Suzaku's chest, and now he had a beautiful boy to spend it with. Sure, in his earlier years, he'd never imagined being gay. It was a sort of natural thing with Lelouch. It slid into place, and felt right. Quite the cozy relationship it was, when the two of them could easily and without restraint spend their days together peacefully.

Suzaku's eyes opened wide when he realized he'd already reached their home and nearly fell over after tripping on the first step to the front door. He calmed his expression, taking a breath to compose himself before opening the door with a smile.

"Lelouch?" He said in a slightly quiet voice, just in case his Lelouch was napping nearby, but his eyes caught from around the corner something that remotely resembled a blanket. "Lelouch?" He repeated curiously. He rounded the corner to find the blanket, along with the day's mail, splayed across the carpet floor.

"Suzaku?" Said man froze in his place as he heard a weak response come from Lelouch's bedroom. Suzaku flew up the stairs and into the bedroom to find Lelouch nearly asleep on his bed.

"You okay?" He asked, albeit breathy from his sprint through the household moments before.

"Not really, no." Lelouch muttered, a scowl on his face as he pulled the covers up over his nose. Suzaku proceeded to check Lelouch's fever for himself.

"Shit, Lulu, you're burning up." Suzaku muttered before running to the bathroom and bringing back the thermometer.

"I'm aware." Lelouch murmured, not removing the scowl still showing in his eyebrows. Getting Lelouch to comply, he put the thermometer in his mouth, only to find it coming out to about 101 degrees Fahrenheit. "Shit…" He repeated, and just when the situation was starting to freak Suzaku out, he heard Sayoko make a timely appearance as she walked into the house and announced her return for the day. Suzaku didn't want to leave Lelouch, but managed to tear his eyes away and stumble down the stairs to Sayoko.

"Sayoko", Suzaku started, but when she tried to greet him back he continued talking through breaths of air, "Lelouch has a fever and I don't know what to do. Do you know anything?" He asked, trying to keep his composure strong and calm.

"Suzaku, first you have to calm down, he'll be fine if we treat this right." She said, and when Suzaku realized she was waiting for him to settle himself down, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before she approved and continued. "Do you have any Tylenol?" She asked, and Suzaku nodded before going back up the stairs and getting the bottle of medicine from the medicine cabinet in their bathroom and taking it to Lelouch's room with a glass of water, where Sayoko was already sitting.

Suzaku was rather calmed at the sight of Lelouch's eyes still open, even if they were barely half-lidded. Sayoko was talking to him quietly, probably investigating the matter more before he came to Lelouch's side and handed him the medicine and water.

Lelouch's eyes seemed to lose some of the fogginess that had set in from the dizziness and nausea as he smiled up at Suzaku from the bed, to which Suzaku smiled back and sat beside him. Lelouch successfully swallowed the pills with a considerable amount of water before leaning back and closing his eyes. Sayoko made herself scarce and shuffled down the stairs to be ready for Nunnally's return from school.

Suzaku lay down beside Lelouch and lightly stroked his hair and pushed it from his face. Lelouch opened his eyes halfway, looking in Suzaku's direction. The sight of his lover made Suzaku want to explode with glee; he looked so beautiful, glancing in his direction with his hair sliding beside his tired eyes and a weak smile adorning his lips. Though he did also look sick, he still managed to look good even when exhausted.

Unfortunately, the expression went away as it faded into curiosity and questioning as Suzaku realized he'd been holding his breath. "So how was your day?" Lelouch asked quietly, which made Suzaku laugh.

"Much better than yours, I can assume." He responded, running his hand through Lelouch's hair once more before gliding his fingers across his cheek. "I missed you, of course." Suzaku said, slightly downcast in a playful manner.

"Oh really now? Shouldn't you be focusing on school rather than noticing my absence all the time?" Lelouch responded with mischief in his whispering tone.

"That's too hard." Suzaku said, and Lelouch laughed quietly before shifting to his side, his eyes closed. Suzaku gave him a worried glance before feeling his forehead once more, which made Lelouch's eyes open once more, this time an annoyed tint in them.

"I'll be fine, Suzaku. Just let me rest for a while." Lelouch muttered sternly, and Suzaku sighed before kissing him on the forehead and sliding off the bed.

"I guess it can't be helped." Suzaku said as he reluctantly walked out of the room. "Goodnight, Lelouch." He said quietly before closing the door behind him.

* * *

A lot of fluff here... Leave me reviews! They would be nice! (And no, of course I didn't include that one section just because I wanted to say canoodle, what ever are you talking about?)

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	8. The Theatrical Valentine's Day Ordeal

I feel so mean for two reasons! I didn't update last week at all AND this chapter is mean and makes me feel guilty sometimes. So I now promise you all another update this week to compensate for the lack thereof for last week! (Excuse me for 'nerding out' with the piano part. I just love them so much!) I apologize in advance for any mistakes you may catch. Please let me know!

Just in case this is helpful for this chapter: Marianne _was _still assassinated, Lelouch and Nunnally _are _royalty (though still in secret), and so on and so forth.

Disclaimer because I haven't in a while: I do not own anything, but I like to pretend to when I dream.

* * *

**Chapter 8- The Theatrical Valentine's Day Surprise**

Lelouch's fever had easily blown off within two days, quite the record for the weak immune system Lelouch had. It was now just days from Valentine's Day, the day Lelouch had been secretly waiting for. He personally wasn't sure why he enjoyed the holiday so much—perhaps it was the enthusiasm with which Suzaku celebrated it every year, even before they'd been together.

Lelouch also didn't quite know what they were doing on that day, either. Suzaku had refused to allow him to buy him anything, which he unfortunately had to agree to, because sneaking out would be rather difficult with the monitors Sayoko and Suzaku had on him constantly.

He sighed as he changed the channel on the TV, but as he was flipping the channels, he suddenly realized he hadn't played the piano once since Suzaku had arrived back home a few months prior.

Lelouch jumped from his feet and strode through his home to the room reserved strictly for the black grand piano he'd saved from the dumps of Ashford Academy. The school hadn't been using it and was planning on simply throwing it away, but Lelouch asked Milly for it, and she agreed on a whim. It now sat in a room all by itself, not counting the curtains that fluttered inward from the elongated windows behind them, a stream of light hitting the keys of the piano; almost like a spotlight.

Lelouch found himself sitting at the piano before he could correctly process it, and closed his eyes with a smile as his hands found the correct keys from old memory. A song he'd taken a liking to seeped through the back of the beautiful instrument as he pumped the piano strong and hard, his right hand ting most of the piece.

The song had a mournful tint buried deep within its sound that always caught Lelouch's attention, but when it reached a powerful middle section that was quite difficult, he opened his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed, a frown hitting his face as if emulating the music in his expression. Despite having not remembered all of the notes and sections, he continued it through, not stopping after a mistake and sliding through it.

It softened down once again, and the anger dissipated from his face as it calmed. He slowed it down, slower than the score had ever said to go, but it felt right to him as he slipped his fingers up and down the smooth keys, his body swaying only slightly to the tune as it slowed to the end. The last notes faded off, a silence reigning over the room, before he heard Suzaku say, "I haven't heard you play in I don't even know how long."

Lelouch whipped his head back in the direction of Suzaku's voice to find him standing behind him, leaning against the wall. "How long have you been here?" He asked, his head twisted around to at least look to Suzaku with one eye.

"Since you were at the beginning. I came in quietly." Suzaku said before walking over beside Lelouch and sitting next to him on the piano stool. "Play some more?" Suzaku asked, and Lelouch put his hands back at the piano keys and started another, much more modern piece.

Suzaku watched in wonderment as his lover's hands glided over the keys, stroking just the correct ones in just the correct order with a soft push. The two hands mirrored each other's noise before the left was lead astray, while the right continued onward. An eerie waltz emitted from the piano before it became a bit more hopeful, with just a bit of remorse.

The chorus reappeared, stronger and louder this time, and then staccato and precise.

A new interlude came to be, this one a bit more happy and hopeful than the last, before again, the chorus boomed and interrupted and repeated itself once more. Until finally, it simply faded out, but it did not seem finished as Lelouch removed his hands prematurely.

"Where is the end?" Suzaku asked ly, before Lelouch smiled down at the piano's keys lovingly.

"There is no end, yet." Lelouch said simply.

"No end? How does a musician not finish a song?" Suzaku asked, his eyes showing confusion.

"He hasn't thought of what happens next. A song is a story, Suzaku. The story has yet to end." He said, looking into Suzaku's eyes. "Soon enough." He whispered as he leaned on Suzaku's shoulder.

Suzaku put his arm around Lelouch's waist and held his stomach gently.

"Tell me when it's finished, Lulu." Suzaku whispered, and Lelouch looked up to Suzaku's face with confusion.

"Lulu? I thought only Shirley called me that." He asked.

"I've taken a liking to it, is all." Suzaku said while shrugging, and Lelouch repositioned himself in Suzaku's shoulder. The couple stayed this way for a while, before Lelouch yawned and draped himself over Suzaku's lap.

"I'm always so tired…" Lelouch complained, and Suzaku took it as an excuse to pull him up bridal style in his arms and kiss him on the forehead.

"I know; you'll just have to bear it." Suzaku said, and Lelouch moaned before snuggling up to Suzaku's chest. Suzaku chuckled and carried him over to the couch, repositioning him so that Lelouch was lying across his lap, his head resting on his chest. Suzaku pulled an arm from beneath them and put his hand on Lelouch's stomach.

Lelouch sighed and held Suzaku's hand in place for a while, before speaking again. "She's been kicking a lot today." He nearly whispered.

"Oh? So you think it's a gi rl?" Suzaku asked.

"I'm pretty sure." Lelouch responded, his head straining upward so as to get a glimpse of Suzaku's eyes.

Before Suzaku could talk again, he felt the light kick of the baby that nearly made Lelouch yelp in surprise. "See?" He said with irritation. "She likes to get me when I'm not expecting it." Suzaku chuckled and kissed Lelouch's head.

"I highly doubt she's doing it just to bother you." He said, running a hand through Lelouch's hair.

"Yes she is." Lelouch fought back, glaring up at Suzaku as he crossed his legs and sat up. "I shouldn't sleep, else I won't fall asleep at night when I'm supposed to." Lelouch said as he let his head fall over the top of the couch with his eyes closed and moaned again.

"Have you been thinking of names?" Suzaku asked, and Lelouch shook his head.

"No, I was kind of just planning on going with the 'decide when she's born' theory. Why, have you?" Lelouch asked, his pupils sliding lazily in his direction.

"Oh, names? I've a lot of them!" They both heard Nunnally yell over with glee as she rolled into the home with Shirley in tow.

"Oh really now? And what would they be?" Lelouch asked over the couch with a smile.

"Well, we could name him Julius, or Sebastian, or maybe Xavier!" Lelouch and Suzaku both laughed at the names Nunnally had been thinking of.

"I'm pretty sure it's a gi rl, Nunnally." Lelouch said, but Nunnally pouted at the notion.

"No, I think it's a boy!" Nunnally revolted, and could she have stomped her foot, she would have. Lelouch laughed jovially with Suzaku before Shirley leaned into the room.

"I don't know, Nunnally, I think Lulu would know best. He is carrying the thing around all the time." She said with an apologetic gaze directed for Nunnally, who whined.

"Oh, fine, I'll just think of some feminine names from now on." She stated, faking dissatisfaction.

"Thank you very much, Nunnally." Lelouch said while Nunnally scoffed and had herself pushed from the scene by Sayoko.

Shirley remained, chatting quietly with Suzaku while Lelouch sat at the couch, reacquainting with his tiredness. He leaned over, resting his head on the arm of the couch and curling his legs up behind him. Within moments he'd acci dentally fallen asleep.

Shirley continued her conversation with Suzaku before cutting herself off with, "Suzaku, is Lulu asleep already?"

Suzaku, noticing his lover's extremely heavy breathing and peaceful expression, laughed quietly. "Yes, I think he is."

Shirley shook Lelouch's arm gently. "Luluuuuu?" She said playfully with a giggle attached on the end, and Suzaku went for gold and quickly jolted Lelouch's sides just barely above the hip, a dangerously ticklish spot on Lelouch's body, as he'd recently discovered.

Lelouch's body writhed with a loud yelp at the stabbing of his hips and grabbed for the hands responsible before he even opened his eyes. "Suzaku!" Lelouch said, exasperated.

Suzaku burst into fits of giggles and laughter as he said, "I couldn't resist. Besides, you were the one that didn't want to go back to sleep." He said plainly, and Lelouch smacked him in the head with a nearby magazine.

"You didn't have to hit my tickle spot!" He yelled in a shrill tone, and Shirley giggled at the fact that Lelouch had just seriously referred to it as his 'tickle spot'.

The four friends eventually did have dinner together at the Lamperouge suite, all smiles and laughter and a few games of 'Tease the Pregnant One', as Lelouch thought it to be in the deep confinements of his mind. The night was ended quite early for Lelouch, who'd complained of exhaustion before the day was even old, and Shirley got going soon after.

"Suzaku, have you been thinking of names?" Nunnally whispered, as they were spending a bit of time together before bed.

"A few…" Suzaku said, aloof. "I don't know, it all depends on what Lelouch wants, but I've been thinking on a few."

"Can I know at least one? Please?" Nunnally begged, her voice whining in anticipation. Suzaku chuckled briefly.

"Well, I like Madeleine, myself." He said, and Nunnally clapped.

"That's a pretty name, Suzaku!" She said, excited.

"You think so?" He asked with a smile, not expecting an answer, but he called for Sayoko as he stated, "Nunnally, it's late and a school night, you should get to bed right away."

"You too, Suzaku; I'm not the only one who needs to go to bed earlier." She nagged, and Suzaku laughed once more as he parted ways with Nunnally and started to climb the staircase to Lelouch's room.

"Goodnight, Nunnally." He said quietly, and she nodded and replied with a light,

"And you too, Suzaku."

* * *

Valentine's Day had started off wonderfully for Lelouch. Suzaku and Nunnally had made an effort to make him breakfast in bed, which he shared with them as well. They all had a picnic upon Lelouch's bed before Nunnally and Suzaku had left for school.

Lelouch made an effort to spend a long time at the piano that day, playing the many cheerful songs he had in his mind's database to the baby kicking away inside of him. He laughed when she made quite a fuss as he played one of his favorite songs.

"You like that one?" He asked his stomach, which seemed to reply with a final jolt. "Look at me, talking to my stomach." He laughed softly and continued playing.

The day went by quicker than usual as he spent the day with excitement bubbling in his stomach at the mere thought of Suzaku. He didn't quite know why, but he was irrationally happier and excited about nothing on this Valentine's Day.

"I blame Suzaku." He muttered, and when he got a stern kick in response, he said, "You agree."

* * *

Milly Ashford was going crazy with excitement today. Her excellent, mischievous plan was going to work out flawlessly, and it was going to be beautiful.

"Suzaku," Milly began, a smirk on her face, "Shouldn't you be spending this day with Lulu?" She asked.

"He made me come to school today." Suzaku said disdainfully.

Milly clicked her tongue in disapproval. "You shouldn't have listened, Suzu!" Suzaku winced at the use of that nickname Milly had taken a liking to.

Soon afterward Suzaku had taken his leave and gone off for morning classes, leaving Milly with some material to work with.

* * *

Lelouch had, despite the strict rule against it, gone outside.

It was just for a little while, mostly because it was freezing. But the cool air whipping at his face made him feel rejuvenated, as if he really needed this.

He sat on his steps, his arms hugging himself for warmth. He breathed in the life of the outdoors, slowly and carefully, so as to absorb it all before he had to return to his confinement indoors for the next three months.

Unfortunately, a scream pierced his peace as he opened his eyes wide to find a with one hand covering her mouth, the other pointing at his stomach. Lelouch's face paled as he squeezed his arms together, so as to try to hide the obvious.

The ran off before she could even hear him yell a desperate, "Wait!" And he nearly fell backward in defeat.

Suzaku, Sayoko, or both were going to kill him.

* * *

Milly ran to the Student Council room in a crazed hurry. She burst into the room and ran for the PA system. A few calming breaths were made before she turned it on and began her speech.

"Well, Ashford Academy, today is Valentine's Day! And you know what that means! Milly Ashford's super-exclusive Valentine's Day scoop! I'm sure you all remember Lelouch Lamperouge, the Vice President of our beloved Student Council!" A few screams could be heard across the premises.

"Well, his lover Suzaku is here, at school! On Valentine's Day! Without Lelouch! We need to fix this!!" Cheers roared along the hallways, and Milly turned off the PA system with a smile of victory adorning her face.

Suzaku, far away in his classes, was eyed by just about every female in the room with evil glances. The gi rls to his right and left were first to attack. They grabbed his arms and pulled him out of the room, down the hallways and before he could understand his shoes were dragging in mud through the gardens.

A huge crowd of people was marching behind the s holding him still as they dragged him across the grounds, and he realized with dread that they were taking him to Lelouch's home.

Suddenly, a loud scream came from the Lamperouge suite, and Suzaku's heart sunk with dread. "Damn it!" He yelled, but it was lost in the din of screams and cheers as he tried to break free. There were too many hands holding him in place. Just when everything seemed to be hopeless, he heard the crowd go absolutely silent, and Lelouch's voice whimpered a painfully scared,

"Suzaku?"

It was then that the crowd began to scream in shock and confusion, most of the group not even sure what had happened at the front of Lelouch's house. It was here that nearly the entire student body, all at once, saw Lelouch's pregnant stomach.

Suzaku ripped himself free from the weakened arms holding him captive and threw himself up the stairs to Lelouch, who was visibly shaking. He took him in his arms protectively, and helped Lelouch down as they both slid to the ground at the mass of screaming, yelling people.

Lelouch's eyes were wide as he grabbed for his ears, hoping to stop his extremely painful migraine from hurting any worse, trying to stop the growing images projecting in his mind. Broken glass and blo od was everywhere in sight. He couldn't escape the realistic replay from his memory as it paused itself on the image of his mother and Nunnally on that staircase. The blo od, it wouldn't stop!

"Let me through! Move it!" Milly pushed her way through the crowd, but her yells were melted into the calamity as she finally reached the end of the mob and found the two lovers crouched on the ground. The crowd then quieted down eerily, and the grounds were absolutely silent as Milly stepped toward Suzaku, and it was then that she finally realized that a shivering gasping Lelouch was hiding under his arms.

"Suzaku, I-" Milly tried to speak, but Suzaku cut her off violently.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Milly?!" He screamed, his eyes opened wide as he lifted his head in her direction, revealing a trembling head with hands clenched tightly to his ears beneath Suzaku's protective chest, as if still trying to fight an unheard shriek in his ears.

"Lulu?" Suzaku heard Shirley nearly whisper as she stepped from the crowd, and Lelouch's head snapped up at the soft patter of her shoe, giving Milly a full blow of guilt. The panic in his eyes was so strong as tears leaked from them rapidly, his lower lip quivering like most of his body.

Lelouch's hands slowly removed themselves from his head, shaking so badly they fluttered up and down raggedly before clenching so tightly blo od seeped from his palms. His pupils shot up to Milly's, still nearly hyperventilating in fear as Suzaku tried to calm him down, whispering incoherent things into his ears. Lelouch's eyes caught the blo od on his hands, causing his fit to increase in severity.

"No, no, no, no…" Milly could hear Lelouch muttering as he rocked back and forth in Suzaku's arms. Lelouch's voice increased in volume through each muttered phrase. "NO!" He screamed, clutching Suzaku's clothing with the bleeding palms.

"They're going to… They'll take her away, no, no, no!" Lelouch said into Suzaku's chest before throwing his head back in a blo odcurdling screech that nearly made Milly collapse right there.

"They can't take her! They can't take her! They can't take her from me!" It was then that Lelouch finally quit screaming to himself and struggled to breathe through wracking sobs as he slid down Suzaku's front, his hands ceasing to grip his clothing. "Blo od… so much blo od!" He croaked just loud enough to be caught by nearby ears. Suzaku pulled the wrecked Lelouch into his arms with a powerful glare directed straight at Milly as he carried Lelouch into their home slowly and carefully. The door was slammed before anyone could say a word.

Suzaku then struggled to calm him down as he hiccupped huge exhausting sobs and chokes in his arms, and it was then that Suzaku realized how it felt to be useless. The most he could do was hug him and whisper sweet nothings in his ears, hoping to stop what he was probably reliving.

Suzaku had guessed that the loud screams had triggered some sort of remembrance of an experience, causing him to tune everything but his own hallucinations out. He shuddered himself as he realized that what Lelouch had been reliving was most likely the assassination of his mother and crippling of his sister. Now, the hallucinations must have made him fear for their baby, the 'her' he'd repeatedly referred to. Or perhaps the 'her' was Nunnally, legs bleeding from beneath their mother, or maybe even the corpse of their mother as Nunnally quivered beneath it, on that fateful day of the past.

"Suzaku… Suzaku!" Lelouch began to repeatedly gasp, and Suzaku tried his hardest to snap him out of it.

"Lelouch, it's alright, no one's going to take her away!" He had to say over the yells that had resumed outside that were seeping through the walls, and Lelouch's desperate whimpers and breaths.

"No, they will! They won't let me…" He trailed off, his breathing decreasing just slightly.

"Lelouch!" Suzaku yelled, and grabbed Lelouch's face in a final attempt to stop the madness and forced him to look in his eyes. His lover's panic-stricken face melted into that of confusion, and Lelouch finally began to simply cry into his chest. Suzaku sighed and held Lelouch's head to him, stroking his silky dark hair, which seemed to calm the boy down into a light slumber.

Suzaku laid Lelouch to rest on his bed, and wiped the tears that were still pouring down his cheeks from Lelouch's face with his thumb before lying beside him, his arms encompassing him like a guardian.

No one dared to disturb them in the mob of people outside their door that soon dissipated into just the Student Council, all eerily standing together in front of their home.

* * *

I left you off in a mean spot, didn't I? I hope this wasn't so cruel as to turn you all away. Thanks for reading and, uh, please review? (Don't hurt me!) I hope you weren't too distracted by the rapid changes of point of view at that middle-end part. It was just the style it ended up in, I suppose.

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	9. Would you swim it with me?

Yay, update!

I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter mostly because I didn't on the depressing parts as long as I should have (to be realistic). Oh well, I'm just trying to keep the story moving in a positive direction, that's my excuse. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 9- "Would you swim it with me?"**

"Milly… what the hell was that?" Rivalz asked softly when all but the Student Council had left the front lawn.

"I don't know, it was just supposed to be inno cent, I had no idea that…" She stopped herself, shaking her head.

"So Lelouch is pregnant." Milly sighed, working through the issue at hand in her head.

"I've known for a while now…" Shirley said, and even though Milly wanted to turn around and yell at her for not telling her sooner, she understood why she had not been notified.

Silence reigned over the group, and they could hear the muffled sobs of their broken Vice President, within his home. "I've never even seen him cry before." Shirley whispered, fear evident in her eyes.

"I have," Milly said, her eyes glazing over, "When he first came here, to live with us." She said, looking down to the cement stairs where Lelouch's blo od from his palms was still drying on the ground, in clenched, smeared prints.

"His mother was mur dered, Shirley." Shirley's eyes widened as she clasped her hands to her mouth, and even though the statement was not directed toward them, Nina, Kallen and Rivalz also had looks of disbelief smacked on their faces. "She was ki lled right before his eyes. He watched his mother die, Shirley." Milly continued to let it soak in, but Kallen took the chance to speak up after the initial statement had been noted.

"Wait, so Nunnally..?" She suggested, and Shirley gasped as the realization hit her.

"She was caught in the crossfire." Milly nearly whispered. She carefully skirted around the whole truth, making sure not to reveal any of Lelouch's royal background. Once again the silence settled in, and they took notice to the lack of wracking sobs previously forcing through the thick windows.

"He came here when he was ten. Nunnally was seven. One night, I'd heard someone crying to themselves, and when I'd followed the sound, it was Lelouch, sitting on the floor." Milly looked up to the sky. "He was staring into the ceiling, muttering for his mother."

"I was scared, being the ten-year-old I was," She continued, "so I called my own mother in. When she saw him, she told me to leave. I guess she didn't want me there while she comforted him."

"And this happened nearly every night, for about a year, before he steeled up and lost his will to feel. If anything, it was even worse than the remedial attacks in the middle of the night," Milly visibly shuddered, "because then he almost never slept. He barely ate and was just barely living, only for Nunnally, because she was all he had left."

"But where was his father in all of this?" Shirley asked, inno cently confused.

Milly's gaze turned to stare into Shirley's. "His father abandoned him and Nunnally here after his mother died."

Shirley looked to the ground. "I would never have guessed… He masks his past so well." She whispered.

"I suppose… The loud footsteps and screams must have triggered some sort of memory." Kallen added, to which Milly nodded before turning back to the door.

"We need to apologize." Shirley said with confidence in her tone.

"Suzaku isn't going to hear it, Shirley, not now."

"I know, but I can't just let this go!" Shirley said, before stomping up the stairs and tracking Lelouch's blo od across the cement in her shoes before knocking on the door powerfully.

It took longer than expected, but Suzaku did eventually open the door and stare her down. "What?" He asked; anger was obviously laced into his voice as he nearly yanked off the front door. Shirley shied away only slightly from the sheer negative aura he was sending her.

"I…Suzaku, Milly didn't mean for anything like this to happen!" She said desperately. "I…I tried to stop it, but it was all so fast, I couldn't help anything in time. Please, forgive me!" She begged, but Suzaku had different plans.

"You traumatized him! Especially when he's carrying a child! You could have killed him, or the baby, or both!" He screamed, clearly set unstable after the untimely breakdown.

"I…" Shirley began, but when she found she had no words, she took two backward steps in fear. Milly took this as a chance to stand up.

"Suzaku, how could I have known that he was pregnant?" She said, unwavering in her confident stare.

Suzaku's gaze softened a bit, flashing a pleading, frightened expression that disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and he looked down to the tracks of Shirley had earlier smudged along the pavement. "I don't know, Milly." He finally said, and was surprised to find Milly's arms around him in a gentle hug just moments later.

Suzaku backed down as he returned the hug tightly, a response Milly wasn't quite expecting as she bit back her own tears. "I didn't even think of the possibility that he would remember that day." She muttered into his shoulder before pulling herself away.

"Neither did I, Milly."

* * *

Suzaku returned to Lelouch's bedroom after bidding the Student Council goodbye.

The way he was draped over the disheveled sheets, the sheen of new tears reappearing on his cheeks as he breathed deeply, with a slight wheeze from the harsh episode just minutes before, Lelouch seemed like a fallen angel; alone in the sea of white and stream of light that highlighted his face in a pale yellow.

Suzaku lay down next to him once more and held the boy to him tightly, yet soft. Lelouch's eyes snapped open and half-lidded themselves as more silent tears slid down his pallor face. "I'm sorry, Suzaku." He whispered, his voice extremely hoarse and broken up into pained sections from his sore throat. Suzaku pulled him even tighter into his embrace, his eyes closed in the remaining anger he still held.

"Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault." He whispered back, his own voice smooth and unblemished.

"I love you, Suzaku." Lelouch said as his tone turned a bit more desperate, voice still strained as he gripped his stomach while his baby kicked inside. Suzaku smiled and put his own hand to Lelouch's and they both lay together in silence for quite a while.

"I love you, too, Lelouch." Suzaku finally responded as he pressed his face into Lelouch's hair and took in his scent. "I still haven't given you your Valentine's Day present." Suzaku said as he pushed the hair from Lelouch's face.

"I haven't given you yours either." Lelouch whispered, his voice smoothening out after using it.

"I told you not to get anything." Suzaku said sternly as he planted quick kisses along Lelouch's neck and jaw.

"I didn't get anything." Lelouch said, letting out a choked giggle as Suzaku fluttered his fingers over Lelouch's stomach. "I wrote you something."

"Oh?" Suzaku asked, resisting the urge to turn his lover over and kiss him full on the lips.

"Mhmm," Lelouch said over another giggle as Suzaku repeated his action and flew over to his exposed hip. He finally lost the control as he gasped and began to giggle uncontrollably as Suzaku tickled his hip just slightly.

"Stop, Suzaku! You'll force me into premature labor!" He said through gasps and laughter, and Suzaku pulled his chin up into his tender kiss before releasing him from the short kiss.

"Don't even joke about that, now." Suzaku said in a low voice while Lelouch simply looked at him. "Feeling better?" He asked, and Lelouch nodded, encouraging Suzaku to plant a light peck on his forehead and release him from his clutches.

"How about your present goes first?" Suzaku said, and Lelouch nodded again before pulling himself from the bed and skidded down the stairs. Suzaku followed, and was slightly confused to find Lelouch going to the piano room. He'd expected that 'wrote' was referring to speech, not music.

So when Suzaku followed Lelouch as he shuffled into the room and sat before the grand piano, he suddenly received a sensation of excitement as he realized that something was going to be played for his presence only in this small echoing room.

"Am I allowed to know what it is you're playing?" Suzaku asked, and Lelouch shook his head, not turning to receive any eye contact as he sat on the bench.

"You won't recognize it anyway, so why should it matter?" Lelouch asked, before starting himself on the cheery song he'd picked out.

The song was short, and so every bit of emotion he had for the song had to pour from the smooth keys and shining strings inside as he rocked back and forth to the tune, once again in a three-four time; the time of the waltz.

Lelouch smiled sadly into the piano with his eyes closed as the notes glided up into a higher octave, whispering a memory.

It tickled at Suzaku's ears and whispered sweet condolences that made his heart swell, and he laughed softly as the song made an enthusiastic trill at the highest of its notes.

Down, down it came again, finishing itself with a few nostalgic chords before fading into the walls once more. Suzaku waited a few moments before asking quietly, "What is the name of that song?"

Lelouch turned around, a single tear running down his unseen cheek, and with a loving, beautiful pronunciation that sent chills down Suzaku's spine, he said, quite simply, "Euphemia."

Suzaku took it as a signal to hug Lelouch from behind, holding Lelouch in his crossing arms and allowing the boy to lean back into his chest. "I wrote it for her when I was still living with Mother… She said it was boring when I first played it for her…" He trailed off with a light, eerie laugh. "So she made me promise to name it after her. Then she said she would like it."

"It fits." Suzaku said before squeezing Lelouch's arm and releasing him. His expression changed to worry as he noticed the stray tear that had escaped from his lover's eye, and he quickly wiped it away with his own hand before smiling straight into Lelouch's face and asking quite plainly, "What do you want to eat?"

Lelouch's expression turned to that of one troubled, and asked, "Why do you ask? You're not making dinner, are you?" He said lowly, a disbelieving glare directed toward him.

Suzaku merely laughed and threw his arms out in an extravagant position and said grandly, "I, Suzaku Kururugi, am making you dinner tonight. Whatever it is you fancy, I will make it." He said as he bowed, causing a loud laugh to bubble from Lelouch's throat.

"Would you happen to have marshmallows, and some ketchup? Ooh, and maybe some pickles?" He asked with a smile.

Suzaku eyed him like a psychiatric ward patient before sighing heavily. "Lelouch, your cravings are going to change by the time I make that stuff."

Lelouch pouted before giving in and rolling his eyes. "Fine, just make us something you deem delicious. I'll be happy with anything." Lelouch said as he sighed in defeat.

Suzaku however pulled his slouching form back up with his hands gripping each shoulder and captured his mouth with his own.

Lelouch moaned and laced his arms together around Suzaku's neck as they leaned back into the piano; Lelouch's back hit the keys hard enough to unleash a startling blow of clashing sound that made Lelouch yelp and pull away, both of them gasping for air that they desperately needed.

Suzaku laughed quickly before slowly pushing his Lelouch back down, his hands pressing Lelouch's body down into the cold black surface as he conquered him with his mouth, trailing kisses up and down his jaw line.

Lelouch gasped as Suzaku expertly licked at his lip, and allowed him entry as he moved his hands down from around Suzaku's neck, to gripping at his back, arched and clawed. He moaned once more as Suzaku attacked, stronger than the last.

Lelouch finally smiled into a less passionate kiss as he felt the intensity slow down and Suzaku retreating. A few final pecks to the lips before a full retreat was initiated and Suzaku smirked down towards Lelouch's satisfied smile.

"Chicken Parm?" He asked, and Lelouch was internally frowning at his motives, but he nodded and said,

"Sounds great."

* * *

"I haven't eaten so much in months." Lelouch muttered as he collapsed onto the bed, and his Japanese boy quickly mirrored his action.

"I beg to differ." Suzaku said curtly, and Lelouch curled himself inward while moaning in exasperation.

"I'm sorry, Suzaku." He begged, and turned around to face Suzaku, his eyebrows upright with apologetic eyes. "My hormones are everywhere."

Suzaku laughed and kissed him on the nose, one hand holding his face. Lelouch smiled and held Suzaku's wrist with his cold long fingers, and held him there as they stared into each other's eyes.

"If love was a lake," Suzaku suddenly spoke, "Would you swim it with me?" Lelouch laughed.

"Hmm, cheesy as ever." He mused aloud, but contemplated his answer. "If love was a lake, I'd be drowning at the bottom." He finally agreed to be the answer. When he saw the confused look on Suzaku's face, he ceased to lengthen his statement.

"But if you were drowning, shouldn't I come and save you?" Suzaku asked, and Lelouch closed his eyes with the slightest of smiles.

"If you come and save me, I won't be so deep in love, will I?" He asked as he played with Suzaku's fingers upon his cheek before they withdrew and pulled his own fingers to Suzaku's lips, who kissed each of Lelouch's fingertips.

"If love was a lake, and I was drowning at the bottom, would you let me pull you down?" Lelouch asked, his eyes showing a bit of nerves and uncertainty as he wondered about the answer.

"Hmm," Suzaku said, saying aloud his internal thoughts, "If love was a lake, and you were drowning at the bottom, I would think about saving you," Lelouch's face began to fall, so Suzaku finished his statement quickly, "but if you pulled me down and gave me one of your looks, I would follow you down without question."

"The looks you give me can make me do crazy things." He continued as he laughed and kissed Lelouch upon the lips lightly, feeling Lelouch's mouth curve upward into a smile.

"That's a legitimate answer." Lelouch breathed.

They lay in silence, before Lelouch turned back to Suzaku, an evil glare on his face, and said sternly, "You've yet to give me the second half to my Valentine's Day present."

"Oh? Did I ever mention a second half?" He asked feigning innocence.

"Yes, you did. Dinner was wonderful and you've treated me so nice, but the suspense is kil ling me." Lelouch said stoically (somewhat taking some of the effect away from such a statement), and Suzaku kissed him deeply before responding,

"Be patient." Suzaku merely said, and a disgruntled Lelouch scoffed before calming down.

The Japanese of the two fell asleep a bit before the other, while the other was suffering from quite the case of insomnia.

As his memories of earlier that day had slowly solidified into clarity, Lelouch desperately did not want to go to sleep, in fear that his hallucinations would haunt him deep into his dreams that night.

Lelouch moaned and turned on his side, slipping his arm beneath his pillow, but as he did so, something cold and metal brushed past his fingers. He paused, and pulled his hand backwards to grab hold of the mysterious object underneath his head and realized it to be a necklace of some kind.

Lelouch feebly lurked to the bathroom, jewelry dripping over his weak sleepy fingers as the light of the bathroom flooded the room. On the simple chain rested a simple ring, and nothing more.

Upon the simple ring rested a simple diamond, sparkling across the bathroom mirror with vanity. Lelouch, though not quite able to comprehend the situation at his current state, smiled and put the necklace around his neck, turned off the bathroom light, and fell into bed.

He immediately fell asleep after that.

* * *

The day had begun quite normally before Lelouch had discovered the mysterious necklace around his neck.

Suzaku and Lelouch had slept in for it was the weekend, the coveted time of the week. The clock read 11:27 in the morning, and the fogginess of sleep had yet to unveil Lelouch from its nauseating grasp. It wasn't until four minutes later that he noticed the thin chain of metal around his neck with a ring hooked within it.

After the initial discovery, he'd desperately tried to remember its origin.

He could not remember where it had come from. Not even the faintest memory. It positively scared him that the necklace he now held in his hands had mysteriously clasped itself to him in the night.

Nevertheless, he kept it on when he changed into his clothing for the day. He would ask Suzaku of it later, he assumed, or Suzaku would tell him. He had a good feeling that despite his lack of knowledge on the matter Suzaku had a large role in its existence.

So he left Suzaku in bed and started his daily schedule of nothingness once more. When he'd discovered that Nunnally was awake, he'd gone to her room and helped her into her clothing and wheelchair.

"Onii-sama, can you play the piano for me?" She asked as he let her down gently into her wheelchair, and he smiled and agreed.

"Of course, Nunnally."

So the pair of siblings wheeled through the hallways of their home before reaching the piano room, where Nunnally was wheeled to the piano's side and Lelouch sat upon its stool, playing her the many cheerful bouncy tunes she'd suggested on a whim.

Together they laughed and played for quite a while, before Lelouch's hands began to swell and shake and Nunnally began to wane in laughter, and they both decided to cease their party.

A new period of time arose, a time for tea and soft chatter. Nunnally and Lelouch spent the remaining minutes of twelve o' clock in the dining room with cups of tea and cookies. It was here that they eventually retrieved Suzaku, seemingly dragging himself out of bed before he would sleep through the entire day.

Lelouch laughed at the mere sight of his lover- his eyes were drooping, his shoulders hunched, his hair tousled, and his clothes disheveled. He was quite the epitome of Saturday.

"Suzaku, you needn't force yourself to the land of the living." Lelouch said with banter in his voice, and Nunnally laughed along with him as she realized the mess Suzaku must have looked.

"Ah, but you are here, so I followed." Suzaku said, leaning down and giving Lelouch a short heartfelt kiss. Nunnally giggled at the display. "Wearing the mystery gift, I see." He commented, and Lelouch's eyes widened and his hand flew for his chest, where the ring now lay.

"I had a feeling it was from you." Lelouch said quietly, and Suzaku gave him such a warm smile it made his heart melt. "Was it your idea of romantic to propose to me in the middle of the night?"

"I didn't propose, I merely lost the ring beneath your pillow." Suzaku argued, and Lelouch laughed heartily.

"So are you going to get down on one knee, or do I have to?" Suzaku obeyed and swooped down to the floor, making Lelouch's heart flutter despite his expectancy of the action.

"Lelouch Lamperouge, will you accept my ring and marry me?" He asked, epitome of Saturday and all, his eyes pleading to Lelouch's- who were trying their hardest to remain emotionless.

"I refuse to take your name due to how ridiculous it sounds with my own, but I suppose this ring is worthy of my finger." Lelouch said curtly, but with a smile he could not contain crossing over his face.

"That's a yes, right?" Suzaku asked, making sure to confirm his answer.

"Yes, it's a yes. I, Lelouch Lamperouge, do take you, Suzaku Kururugi, as my future husband." Lelouch said through a toothy smile, and Suzaku threw himself upon him in a huge overpowering hug nearly before he could even finish his claim.

Meanwhile, Nunnally was squealing and clapping, chanting, "My Onii-sama's getting married!" In a cheerful simple tune as Suzaku unclasped the chain, removed the ring, and placed it upon Lelouch's finger, a waterfall of emotions crashing down on him.

"I love you, Lelouch." Suzaku whispered in his ear, and the most Lelouch could reply with due to the huge varying confusion of emotions, was,

"I love you too," in the strongest voice he could manage.

* * *

Ah, I did the cliche thing! Please excuse me. If any of you are completely against the idea, you don't even have to worry about it because it won't be occurring in this half of the story (I'll be posting 'extras' after the initial fanfiction). This is _not _meant to be a shotgun wedding at all, haha. Leave me a review, why don't you?

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	10. Milly Ashford's Regular Tomfoolery

Yay, update! I get just as excited as you get whenever I update because I get to hear all of your wonderful reviews! One big shout-out to my readers/reviewers! I hope you enjoy! (I apologize if you are confused by the time-skip here. I also apologize if I missed some word somewhere, please let me know.)

* * *

**Chapter 10- Milly Ashford's Regular Tomfoolery**

"Suzaku," Lelouch said, his voice pleading and pitiful, "Can you please help me up?"

Suzaku laughed and extended his hand towards his lover's reaching one, which clasped itself to him and he hoisted his extremely pregnant boy up and onto his feet. "Lelouch, you are seven and a half months pregnant." He said between a laugh.

"Don't remind me." Lelouch shot at him with a glare, but his intimidating demeanor quickly fell as pain was reflected on his face and he reached for his back. He moaned deeply and strengthened his grip on Suzaku's unfortunate hand as he shuffled across his room. "Damn her and her ability to cause me severe pain."

"Let's not swear in front of the baby, now." Suzaku hushed him, and Lelouch rolled his eyes before letting it slide and concentrating on clobbering down the stairs. The pair soon ran into Nunnally, accompanied by Sayoko as always.

Sayoko had forced Lelouch to allow her to stay at the Lamperouge home at all hours while he was in such a delicate phase of the pregnancy. Because of all that extra weight being added on, any average person would require remedial help, not to mention someone with such a lacking physique as Lelouch.

"Onii-sama!" Nunnally chimed, her voice a soothing massage to Lelouch's mind. "Is your back any better today?" She asked quite inno cently.

"Not quite." Lelouch said calmly, despite the extreme fits of anguish he so wished to play out on his floor. His hand was still at his side, and Suzaku had silently put his hand over Lelouch's on his lower back, as if trying to conjointly heal it.

This caused Lelouch to smile and look into Suzaku's face with near-sparkling eyes of gratitude, but another spasm sent him waddling into the living room hastily, asking Nunnally to follow him and Suzaku.

Suzaku had, upon reaching the couch of their living room, picked up Lelouch and put him in his lap as he lay across the couch horizontally, and Lelouch groaned as he sunk into his chest. "I definitely wasn't anticipating this." He said absent-mindedly, and Suzaku laughed at him before stroking his silk raven hair.

"I know." Suzaku whispered into Lelouch's hair, and kissed it roughly before leaning back himself. Nunnally chose then to join them with Sayoko at her side.

"Onii-sama, Suzaku, do you need any more things for the baby?" Nunnally asked softly, and Suzaku felt Lelouch shaking his head on his midsection.

"I think we're okay, Nunnally. You don't have to worry about our preparedness." He said with a dazzling smile that nearly made Suzaku giggle and grab his cheeks, as was his immediate reaction. He settled for holding him tighter in his arms.

"Suzaku?" Lelouch strained his neck upwards, looking up at Suzaku upside down.

"Hmm?" Suzaku responded absent-mindedly, stroking Lelouch's hair just behind the ear.

"Can her last name be Lamperouge?" Lelouch asked, his eyes nearly pleading.

"I thought we already agreed on that." Suzaku said, a bit confused at the random subject being thrown at him.

"I know, but that was before you decided to unconsciously pop the question." Lelouch complained and turned on his side so as to be less uncomfortable staring into Suzaku's eyes with determination.

"My answer's still the same, you know." Suzaku said, and he brushed his fingers across Lelouch's forehead. In doing so, his expression melted into worry as he muttered, "You're warm." Lelouch rolled his eyes.

"I'm always warm right after I wake up, Suzaku." He said strictly, his eyes hardening with displeasure.

"I know, but still…" Suzaku said, not quite all of the worry fading off his features, and Lelouch just sighed.

"Suzaku, I'll be fine, seriously." Lelouch said with the irritation seeping through his voice, and Suzaku took it as a sign to back away slowly.

"Alright." He replied leniently, but when Lelouch made to peel himself from Suzaku's chest, he disapproved and pulled him back down. "Just where do you want to go?" He said in Lelouch's ear, but Lelouch whipped his gaze back around to meet his own with fire burning in his pupils.

"Please let me go." Lelouch said coldly, but when he tried to break free from Suzaku's hold—albeit weakly—he was held even tighter in place. "Suzaku." He raised his voice and the Japanese boy restraining him loosened his hold just slightly before sending him a curt,

"No." No doubt this infuriated the Britannian, and he nearly burst into tears as he tried to wiggle himself out of the stronghold.

"Please, Suzaku!" He pleaded, but all the Japanese responded with was a,

"You can't be walking around all the time, Lelouch." Suzaku frowned, but his frown was fractured open when he saw the near tears in Lelouch's eyes, and he quickly released him.

Lelouch moved himself away as best he could and slowly stood from the couch, his eyes blazing. "You can't keep guarding me like this, Suzaku!" He yelled.

"Lelouch," Suzaku began, but he was quickly cut off.

"No, I don't want to hear it! I'm perfectly capable of moving around my own home without injuring myself." He said before averting his attention to the floor.

"I'm just worried for you, Lelouch. You're hardly capable of carrying around with you the extra weight of a child!" Suzaku said, desperately trying to defend his side.

"I can at least walk to the kitchen for something to drink! Can't you just let me off the hook for five seconds?" Lelouch beseeched, and Suzaku leaned in to Lelouch's face.

"No, I can't! You're being narrow-minded, Lelouch!" Suzaku shouted, and this was where Lelouch turned quickly.

"You're being overprotective, Suzaku." Lelouch whispered quietly with an angered shake in his voice. He took his leave and staggered out of the room toward the kitchen, leaving a terribly tense aura in the room.

Nunnally finally took her chance to speak. "Suzaku, can you please apologize to my Onii-sama?" She asked, her own voice steeling up into an element rarely seen in the banished princess' tone of voice.

Suzaku let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and put his head in his hands. "I'll try." He said softly, and Nunnally nodded in understanding.

Suddenly, a calamity echoed through the house, and Suzaku's senses went into overdrive as he leaped through the halls to find Lelouch on the floor, having seemingly stumbled over nothing and fallen. He must have attempted to catch a table for support, because the small stand had been forced over as well, tipped on its side with all of its china splattered across the carpet in shattered pieces.

It was Lelouch's stagnant stare at the floor that brought Suzaku back to reality after having surveyed the scene. His lover was on the ground with his legs crumpled beneath him, his arms hugging his chest and head hung. Suzaku could see his fingers shaking as they gripped his shoulders.

Suzaku took his first instinct's advice and knelt down to the floor, carefully avoiding the broken glass, and pulled Lelouch close to him in an enveloping hug. Lelouch did not give him any signs of response, so Suzaku started to pull himself away, but when the boy in his arms whimpered quietly at the sensation he quickly embraced him even tighter than before.

"I'm sorry, Suzaku." Lelouch muttered, leaning backwards into Suzaku's shoulder and closing his eyes. Suzaku shushed him and caressed his cheek, which required unclasping his arm out of Lelouch's de ath grip.

They stayed amongst the floor together for a bit longer, and Lelouch quickly succumbed to exhaustion and let go of his arms to simply lean against Suzaku's chest, but their peace was interrupted when Sayoko politely insisted she pick up the broken glass. Suzaku made no second thought against picking Lelouch up in his arms and carrying him to the living room. Lelouch did not complain.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku whispered in Lelouch's ear after he had been properly laid upon the couch.

"Mm?" He heard Lelouch mumble, and he chuckled delicately before saying whole-heartedly,

"_I'm_ sorry." Lelouch seemed to accept his apology, because Suzaku could see the smile that overcame his tiredness. "You shouldn't go back to sleep you know, you just woke up." Suzaku nagged, and the smile vanished from Lelouch's face as he groaned and pulled himself up in a half-curl up.

"You brought me here!" Lelouch responded in a shrill tone, his eyes still closed as he swung his legs over the side of the couch, and Suzaku jumped up before he'd even touched the ground with his toes. He slid his attention over to Suzaku with vexation written on his face. "Show off." He muttered as he shuffled across the room, and didn't fight it when Suzaku chuckled and grabbed one of his hands for support.

"I'm not going anywhere without you." Suzaku said with a smile, and Lelouch averted his gaze to the trimming on his walls.

"I know." He said with fake regret, but a smile managed to make it to his lips unnoticed by his detection.

* * *

Lelouch had been enjoying his day just fine on his own. Suzaku had taken his leave on the excuse that he was sorely lacking in the quota of school days he was required to attend, due to his recent constant nursing of Lelouch all day and all night.

Lelouch's eyebrow twitched and he missed a few beats on the piano from the sheer remembrance of the annoyance his lover had been when he'd been barely allowed the luxury of walking. He threw his hands among the keys in defeat, creating a resounding crash of dissonance.

Not long after he'd done so had the doorbell rung erratically. Lelouch could only fear who was at his door before yanking it open, revealing an overenthusiastic Milly to ruin his peace.

"Wow, Lulu, you're huge!" She said, leaning down to get a good look at his stomach. Lelouch just as soon slammed the door in her face.

He remained in place as the crazy doorbell ringing reappeared, and he calmly opened the door with a smile. "Hello, Milly." He said politely, and Milly threw at him what he realized to be a shirt as it collided with his face.

"Put that on and come with me." Milly said, her gaze creepily serious as Lelouch straightened out the shirt before him, only to find that it read '#1 MOMMY' in big white print. Lelouch glared over the top of the shirt he held in front of his gaze, and Milly almost succumbed to the daggers he sent her. "Oh, it's all in good fun, Lulu!" She claimed with a mischievous chuckle that sent shivers down Lelouch's spine.

"Why should I follow you?" He asked, eyebrow arching in questioning.

"Because I have your baby's daddy as my hostage!" She said in a sing-song voice, and Lelouch's eyes could not help but widen in near-fear. Premonition made his extremely paranoid mind go wild with assumptions, and so he regrettably threw on the shirt and a jacket and slipped on a random pair of shoes. Upon stepping outside however, he learned that the sky was pouring rain.

"You came to my house in a huge downpour just to force me into this shirt and take me to an undisclosed location where Suzaku allegedly is?" Lelouch said with one breath, and Milly nodded enthusiastically, her grip on his wrist should he attempt escape tightening as she pulled him into the school. "I'm sorry about before." Lelouch muttered loud enough for her to hear. Milly stopped, and Lelouch really wished she hadn't.

"I'm sorry about before." She repeated back at him—as if he hadn't said anything at all—with her glowing smile. "You needn't blame yourself all the time and put everything on your own shoulders." She sent him a knowing look that threw him off, but it twisted into a smirk. "You can't handle that much weight even without a baby sucking on your energy." Lelouch was going to yell at her back, but he smiled back instead.

Lelouch let down his hood as they reached the safety of the school's ceilings. He was unnaturally aware of the many bewildered eyes upon his stomach as he tried to pull his hands defensively around his stomach. The swift stretching of his shoulder muscles unfortunately sent him spiraling into extreme back pain, and his entire body flinched as he stifled an "Ow."

Lelouch had to blink back the tears that had appeared half because of the lightning speed Milly was lugging him around with and half because of the sudden splitting pain in his lower back. Milly must have noticed his sudden discomfort, because she slowed down a bit and loosened her grip on Lelouch's wrist, but in doing so she felt the scratch of a ring on her palm.

She then stopped abruptly and turned as Lelouch nearly collided with her frozen body, grabbing his wrist once more and taking a good look at the diamond ring on his finger. "Lelouch, you're engaged?"

"Well, yeah…" Lelouch trailed off, a blush creeping on his face, and Milly threw her head back and laughed obnoxiously, leaving him to wonder what was so amusing.

"Sorry, Lulu," She said, seemingly reading his mind, "but your life is so messed up. Generally people get married before they have a baby." She said, and Lelouch wanted to melt into the tiled flooring of Ashford Academy as a growing crowd appeared, encircling them. "Well, come on!" Milly, to Lelouch's relief, said, and pulled him out of the mob and back through the hallways.

Another burst of pain hit his back as they jolted from the group of people, and he whimpered at the terrifying speed at which they were flying through the halls. "Milly, can we please slow down?" He pleaded, and he must have had a bad expression on his face, because Milly immediately nodded and let them slow to a walk.

"We're almost there anyway." She said with her prized toothy smile, and Lelouch couldn't help but laugh internally. They rounded one more corner before Lelouch realized that they were headed for the Student Council room, a place he hadn't been to in the longest time. He smiled as he recalled his earlier shenanigans with his friends, before he'd had to lock himself away in his home.

Milly then stopped, surprising Lelouch once more, before opening the door and waving her hand to him, motioning him in. He'd barely made two steps into the room before being attacked by a hug he instantly recognized as Suzaku's. He must have been restrained for a long time, because the urgency with which he embraced him was rather tight. Lelouch felt as if no one in the world but the two of them existed for a few moments as he leaned into Suzaku's chest and moaned deeply. "My back hurts like hell." He mumbled into his shirt, and Suzaku laughed before pulling his feet up and carrying him to one of the chairs surrounding the large center table.

Lelouch lolled his head back over the edge of the chair, before snapping up when he heard Shirley giggling. "Geez, Lulu." Was all she had to say, and he sent her a terrible glare before putting his arm across his chest, hoping to shield himself at least a little. Unfortunately, the movement caused his ring to glitter across all of their eyes, and Shirley clapped and giggled some more, asking Lelouch to roll his eyes at her gi rlish reactions to everything.

"You guys are getting married?" She said excitedly, and Lelouch's blush returned to him once more as he nodded.

"Keeping our names, of course." Suzaku said, suddenly reappearing in the circle. The sound of Suzaku's voice calmed Lelouch just slightly.

"Why?" Shirley asked, and Lelouch spoke up this time.

"Because Lelouch Kururugi is a ridiculous name." The giggles and strangled laughter hummed over the still activity of the room at the mention of the strange combination.

"So what's the baby's last name going to be?" Milly asked, and both Suzaku and Lelouch answered at the same time with,

"Lamperouge." Lelouch took it upon himself to further the explanation.

"She'll have a French first name too." Lelouch said absent-mindedly and of course the group all took it upon themselves to suggest names all at once, which he realized would happen just after speaking.

"Antoinette?" Milly suggested.

"Aurorette?" Shirley said with her finger pointing at the ceiling, her eyes following.

"No," Lelouch said, still looking into the ceiling, "I have a bunch of them at my disposal. I'm not choosing anything before I even see her, though."

"Aurorette is pretty." Suzaku suggested, and Lelouch sent him a chilling glare that immediately stopped him from trying any sort of manipulation. "Sorry…" He said quietly, and Lelouch sent him a silent reassurance with glittering eyes and a small smile. Suzaku would have been more afraid of the crazy mood swing alert in Lelouch's actions had they not been surrounded by the Student Council.

"So what did you want me for?" Lelouch asked, and Milly threw her arms out in extravagance.

"We're doing a festival in your name!" She said, and Shirley cheered alongside her. Suzaku stepped in.

"Milly, isn't that a bad idea? Knowing what happened last time a crowd of people saw him?" He said, his eyebrow arched and eyes darting toward Lelouch. He could faintly hear his fiancé mutter an apology from his position.

"Everyone knows now! Come on, guys, it'll be fun!" Milly begged them with too much excitement brewing in her mind, and when Lelouch merely sighed in defeat she began her victory celebration before he'd even said anything.

"I'm not dressing up in anything worse than this, though!" Lelouch sputtered, pointing at his chest.

"Wait, what are you wearing?" Shirley asked, and Lelouch felt the color drain from his face. He'd kept his jacket zipped up as he'd sat with his friends, and now he'd have to show them the pink embarrassment stretching over his stomach. It was only Suzaku's pleading eyes that convinced him to stand from his seat and, with a blush, unzip his jacket slowly.

Milly smiled widely in pride as Suzaku fell into severe fits of snorts and laughter, nearly falling to the floor from the extremity. "That's… cute, Lulu." Shirley said with a few giggles interrupting her speech. Lelouch moaned and sat back down.

"Milly, I'm hardly in the condition to walk around a festival all day." Lelouch said, and Milly nodded hastily.

"Then we'll just have to find you some means of transportation!" Lelouch sighed again. There was no getting out of this.

"Fine." He breathed through the sigh, crossing his arms. "When will this festival be, then?" He asked, and Milly took a huge intake of breath before nearly screaming,

"Two weeks!"

* * *

Wow, only two breaks in one chapter? That's a serious personal achievement. Hope you enjoyed, and please leave me a nice review! (I may also be a bit longer on the next update. The writing is a bit shaky and I don't want to update until I am completely satisfied with what my readers are, well, reading. I apologize, but I will also promise it will definitely not be longer than maybe three weeks! That would be mean.)

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	11. The Festival and What it Entails

Whoo, update!

I don't know why, but I'm so nervous about updating the last few chapters! We're getting into the danger zone (read: the part where writer's block tends to blur things together into frustrating 'not quite right' bits). I apologize if this is not 'up-to-par' with my other updates, I have had the worst trouble with it! Nonetheless, I will not leave my fanfiction unfinished due to some turmoil over its preparedness that is probably just me stressing over the fact that it's coming to an end! I hope you enjoy (and that this didn't just discourage you) and please do let me know how you felt about it. I love responses.

* * *

**Chapter 11- The Festival and What it Entails**

The morning of the festival was quite the eventful one as Milly bombarded Lelouch with multiple methods of 'torture'.

"Here, put this on!" She yelled, throwing Lelouch some sort of article of clothing. Lelouch sighed, but not in defeat.

"Can't I just wear normal comfortable clothes?" He whined. Shirley joined Milly and yelled hastily, "No!" followed by a mantra of giggles. Lelouch sighed again and took one look at the clothing only to find it to be a dress.

"I refuse to wear a dress today." Lelouch said, the worst glare he could muster directed at Milly. She responded with a devilish laugh. "I won't even come to this festival if you don't take my orders, you know. You're at my mercy." Lelouch said, and Milly's face shrunk into a scowl.

"Don't be so smug as to think you have control over me and my festival!" She sneered, and this time threw him a pair of pants and a matching shirt. Sure, they were frilly, but they were not a dress, so Lelouch could only scoff and throw them on himself in a haste.

"Wait," Shirley halted him as he was pulling the shirt over his stomach,  
"I want to feel it." She said, staring him in the eyes in a way that he could only comply to.

Lelouch pulled his shirt up high and sat down at a nearby chair, exposing his smooth rounded midsection. Shirley crept up slowly, encouraging the growing frown and glare on Lelouch's face. "Come on, get over here." He mumbled, and Shirley leapt up and jumped to his side, staring with interest into his bloated stomach.

"Wow," She breathed, and she finally traced her fingers along the curve of his body. Lelouch flinched ever so slightly at the contact from her cold fingertips, but relaxed as she placed the palm of her hand just above his belly button. "That is so cool!" She exclaimed, smiling. Lelouch returned the gesture with a sarcastic undertone.

"Yeah? Try having extreme insomnia as she kicks in the middle of the night." He muttered, grimacing. His smile had slowly diminished into a scowl as he spoke. Shirley only laughed.

"Alright! Ready to go out there, Lulu?" Milly asked, arms spread wide.

"Where's Suzaku?" Lelouch asked, trying to peek over her shoulders and out the door of his home.

"Don't worry, your lover boy's waiting for you out there." She said, pointing with her thumb to the outdoors Lelouch could not see. He nodded and stood, holding his stomach in place as if it would burst as he regained an upright position.

"Alright, let's get this over with." He mumbled, while Milly and Shirley squealed in delight together.

This was going to be a terribly long day.

"Lulu, get out here!" Shirley's nagging voice alerted, shrill and painful upon Lelouch's sensitive ears as he stumbled through the Student Council room.

"I'm coming." He mumbled, a glare directed at the wall as he painfully strut through the room while Shirley and Milly composed many strange cosmetics he'd never bothered to question.

"Alright! So you know what to do, right?" Milly asked him, and Lelouch could tell just by looking at her that the excitement was nearly making her shake with anticipation. He nodded, never taking his eyes off hers.

"I just want to get this over with." He mumbled, and Milly frowned and started spouting some over-enthusiastic gibberish that was completely unacknowledged within his brain. He felt like crap, to say the least. All Lelouch wanted was to spend the next week or two lounging about his home with Suzaku.

"Suzaku…" He whispered his thought and Milly must have caught it, because she put her hands at her hips and nearly spat at him.

"Oh, calm yourself, you'll get to spend the day with him anyway!" She complained, and Lelouch groaned as he leaned against the wall as a substitute for Suzaku's shoulder.

Milly motioned out the doorway before exiting the Council room herself, and Lelouch took a moment to gather his bearings before pushing the door outwards into the chaos he expected to await him in the halls of Ashford Academy.

Before he could breathe once more he felt himself swoop horizontally and shut his eyes instinctively, to find that it was Suzaku waiting for him at the door. A kiss followed immediately after, short and sweet.

It was here that Lelouch realized that there was indeed a huge crowd of people awaiting them as they all 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed at the affectionate display, some attempting to even take pictures. A few fan girls screamed from afar after hearing the news. Whispers and silent waiting washed through the crowd, but Lelouch felt his stomach drop and suddenly felt rather sick.

"Can we get out of here?" He asked loudly so Suzaku could hear him, unwanted fear gripping his voice. Suzaku nodded and plowed his way through the people expertly, avoiding the people as if they had a personal paparazzi. Lelouch burrowed his face into Suzaku's chest, as if trying churlishly to hide from the many flashing cameras and yelling faces.

When the two had finally cleared the crowd of hyperactive festival-goers, they reached an old-fashioned, pure white, horse-drawn carriage that Milly must have prepared for them. Lelouch sighed. "Only Milly would go this far." Suzaku merely chuckled as he set Lelouch down and joined him upon the comfortable outdoor bench upon the carriage. "How much do you want to bet she spent on this?" Lelouch muttered, irked over what sorts of deficits he may need to deal with in the future, as most Student Council work that required thinking was generally pushed unto him.

"Oh, just enjoy it." Suzaku hushed him, and Lelouch sighed once more before leaning upon his shoulder.

"I feel pretty bad, Suzaku. It's kind of hard to enjoy it right now." Lelouch said bluntly, causing Suzaku's shoulder to shake with laughter and he ultimately ended up condemning himself to sitting upright once more.

"I know," he said, hand slipping over Lelouch's softly, "but it won't be much longer now, hmm?" Suzaku reassured him, a newfound light shining in his eyes.

Another sigh escaped Lelouch's lips, and he let his head fall backwards into the tall backing of their seat. "I suppose not." He complied. An uncontrollable groan managed to also make its presence known, taking the glitter from Suzaku's eyes and slapping a frown in a smile's place.

"Lelouch?" He asked, and Lelouch took a few moments of silence before looking up again.

"I'm alright…" He said, vague and unsure. Though reluctantly, Suzaku took it as an answer and squeezed Lelouch's hand as condolence. Never mind the loud babbling crowd beside their haven; they had eyes for none but each other as they traveled across the grounds in their fantasy-carriage.

"It's been eight months and two weeks." Suzaku said, absently, rubbing Lelouch's hand.

Lelouch nodded and smiled. "Any day now, hmm?" He said softly, ignoring the voices echoing through his ears with whistles and cheers drowned to a low hum.

Their short relaxing ride had been cut quite short in Lelouch's opinion when they arrived at their destination- a pair of thrones, one for each of them.

"Suzaku, you know I'm getting the bigger one, right?" Lelouch said, conniving tone music to Suzaku's ears. Suzaku chuckled, a melodic tune that caught Lelouch's attention and made him smile in response.

"Of course." Suzaku replied sweetly, and kissed his forehead. He once again swept Lelouch off his feet and carried him into the throne, gracefully and beautifully. Their fingers naturally interlocked between the armrests of their chairs, touching each other soft and light. Another captured gaze between them, and they faced their crowd.

The loud screams and shrieks over one another rose to its literal volume in Lelouch's ears, making him visibly wince at the extremity. Suzaku must have caught this, because his weak hold on Lelouch's fingers tightened and curled upon it.

"I give you, Prince Lelouch Lamperouge!" The crowd's volume increased even further before dying down upon Milly's gestures. "And his brave knight, Sir Suzaku Kururugi!" Lelouch and Suzaku simultaneously laughed under their breaths at the extravagant display Milly was putting on, as well as the underlying secret truths to their appointed titles.

"In case you haven't noticed, they're to be wed and are awaiting a child! Very soon, I'm thinking." She said, muttering the last bit just loud enough so that it echoed through the microphone, starting a roaring humming laughter through the crowd. Lelouch scowled but softened when Suzaku grabbed his hand once more.

"We all know that Lelouch and Suzaku now live on-campus, and you know what that means! That baby's going to keep us up all night for a while!" The crowd groaned upon this realization, and both Suzaku and Lelouch blushed, embarrassed. "So let's toast to the peace we're enjoying now! To a good night's sleep, a new healthy baby and a beautiful marriage!" She screamed into the microphone as the crowd began to shriek its two cents.

* * *

The ceremony consisted of little else after that. Lelouch stayed put and spoke to his classmates politely while Suzaku wandered around, being showered with further questioning.

Once the festival had nearly ended, Milly announced the final notations and cued up the ballroom dancing. The couples swirled in elegant, orderly circles with each other as a live orchestra played a menagerie of musical tones.

Suzaku pulled Lelouch from the main crowd and to the side of the room, noticing his lover's hidden discomfort. "We can go home now, you know," He mumbled in Lelouch's ear as he embraced him from behind. "I don't want you pushing it."

"Suzaku," Lelouch began, giving him a persistent glare, "I can last longer…really…" His sentence trailed off and a look of confusion dominated his face.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku asked, urgently and just as confused as Lelouch appeared.

"I feel weird." He muttered, his hand naturally upon his stomach.

"Now we're definitely going home." Suzaku said, pulling Lelouch up and helping him out the door.

"No. Wait, Suzaku." Lelouch said, and his back flew forward as he held Suzaku's shoulder for support. A moan escaped his lips. "I don't know what this is." He said to himself, frustrated and confused.

"And now I'm taking you to a hospital." Suzaku told him, flat and overpowering. Lelouch shook his head.

"No, wait. I think it's done now." He said, but as soon as he straightened up, he doubled over in twice the amount of pain as before. "On second thought." He said through a wince, and Suzaku took this as a cue and picked him up, walking as fast as he could without losing control to their home.

They made their quick way across the premises, Lelouch's occassional moans of pain scaring him into outright fear. "Sayoko-san?" Suzaku called through the house, a desperate feel in his voice. When she came running, she got the message and called for a car.

"The baby must be in distress, we have to get him to the hospital quickly." Suzaku was in awe at Sayoko's calm demeanor as he nodded.

Out the home they flew, and Suzaku laid Lelouch gently inside the car before running to his own side and getting in. As soon as he had shut the door, the car was off, speeding for the hospital.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku tried to get his lover's attention, but it was all for naught as the pained noises reduced to short squeaks.

"It's like she's trying to crawl out of my stomach!" He growled, gritting his teeth.

"That very well may be what she's doing." Suzaku said sheepishly, but snapped back to serious mode as Lelouch's fits became closer together. He hugged him tightly with his arms around Lelouch's shoulders, as if trying to comfort him in any way possible.

"Thanks." He thought he heard Lelouch mutter, so he nodded discreetly in case it was not as such. "So now what, we go to the hospital, they perform a cesarean section? Because I'm not a woman so I can't go any other way, and—"

"What are you doing?"

"Keeping my mind off of this demon clawing at my internal tissues!" He nearly yelled before doubling over once more. "Give me something to think about." He muttered into his lap.

"Well," Suzaku began, clearing his throat nervously, "this isn't going to last for much longer, that's a positive outlook." Suzaku said, and Lelouch groaned.

"Tell me you didn't bring a camera." Lelouch whined through his teeth, and Suzaku laughed nervously. Another groan, this one an overreaction.

"Come on, this is seriously important! How many times are you going to like, give birth or whatever?" Suzaku said (some of his ability to speak leaving him momentarily) and Lelouch chuckled softly, a small smile at his lips for just a few moments before it disappeared in agony.

"We're almost there, just calm yourself down."

"How am I supposed to calm down?! This hurts like hell!" Lelouch shrieked, his voice elevating up just a few notches.

"Well, after this passes we'll have a beautiful baby, won't we?" Suzaku assured him. "It'll be worth it, won't it?"

"Yeah," Lelouch said, nearly panting, "I suppose you're right." Suzaku grabbed his head and kissed it hard, and pulled Lelouch's head to his chest.

"Just focus on breathing for me until we get there." Suzaku mumbled into the mob of dark hair below his face.

"Mmkay." He heard Lelouch mutter through an exhaled breath, which allowed for Suzaku to relax a bit himself. It was all happening so fast- Suzaku barely had any of his senses working as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that something so important could come upon them so quickly. It all seemed to be a big blur of frantic reactions.

Before he'd even noticed, they'd arrived at the hospital, and Sayoko was quietly urging Lelouch to regain posture and step from the car. Suzaku threw open his door and jogged around the back to stand beside Sayoko.

"Lelouch, we're here." Suzaku whispered, trying to stay as calm for him as possible. One of Lelouch's eyes peered from beneath his arm as he reached to grab Suzaku's hand. As soon as their fingers made contact, Suzaku pulled him out of the car and into his arms, bringing a loud yelp out of Lelouch.

A wheelchair was shoved in their direction and Suzaku didn't take the time to look up and see the faces of the rushing interns. Sayoko pushed Lelouch into the wheelchair, who immediately sunk into its corners with a moan.

Through the automatic doors of the Emergency Room they rushed. "Maternity ward, please!" Sayoko yelled, and the interns following them dissipated into just two as they directed the three of them to the elevators.

Suzaku momentarily forgot the situation and wondered how many of the other patients in the Emergency Room had looked in confusion upon Lelouch when they were informed by Sayoko's yelling voice that he was headed for the Maternity ward. He nearly chuckled, but was reminded of the circumstances as they were crammed into an elevator. An intern pushed the 'four' on the keypad of floors.

It was so unbearably slow, that elevator was. Suzaku tapped his foot on the flooring at such a rapid speed Sayoko had to touch his arm to notify him of the action and calm himself. They exchanged looks of equal empathy.

"Well, this elevator is unbearably slow." Lelouch mumbled, and Suzaku chuckled at their mirrored thoughts. They reached their floor soon afterwards, engulfed in the sounds of child labor everywhere. "I am so glad I don't have the choice to do that." Lelouch said, grimacing, and Suzaku laughed again.

"You'll be easy. They'll probably take care of you straight away." Suzaku evaluated, and Lelouch nodded.

They were given a hospital room all to themselves, the parallel bed beside them vacant. A doctor took the interns' place, and they exchanged brief greetings before moving along. "Lelouch, correct?" He asked, looking at a chart. Lelouch nodded shakily as he took his place upon the hospital bed. "So since you're obviously incapable of child birth," Lelouch nodded again, "we'll probably have your baby out of you before tomorrow." The male doctor smiled, which Suzaku and Lelouch both returned.

"I'll come back to you when you've been scheduled for your cesarean section." The doctor said curtly before rounding the curtain and walking from the room quickly.

"So now we know her birthday." Lelouch whispered, eye in a constant twitch from the twinges of pain.

"June sixth…" Suzaku said under his breath. He decided he liked the ring to it. Lelouch closed his eyes and smiled, somewhat content when compared with his previous state of panic.

"So now we wait." Suzaku said, and Lelouch groaned before falling back into his pillow completely.

"I'm sick of waiting." He murmured. Suzaku scooted his chair up closer to Lelouch's side and took his hand in both his own. He pulled Lelouch's fingers to his mouth and kissed them, but Lelouch loosened Suzaku's grip and brushed his hand against his cheek.

"I love you, you know." Suzaku said, and Lelouch laughed and turned his head away from Suzaku's gaze.

"Of course I know, you idiot. I'm wearing your ring and bearing your child, aren't I?" Another quieted grunt of pain, then silence.

They waited for about fifteen minutes before being directed that they would be performing the surgery now. In that amount of time Lelouch's pain had nearly doubled as he had to bite his lip to keep from shrieking. "You can come into the room and watch, it you wish." The doctor informed Suzaku, but he shook his head.

"No, I'll probably be squeamish about it." Suzaku said, but when he saw Lelouch's eyes widen at the realization that Suzaku wouldn't be there with him, his gaze softened and he kissed him upon the forehead, ignoring how sweaty it was. "I'll be waiting for you when you come back, I promise." Lelouch gave him a weak affirmative nod before allowing himself to be sedated. He was carted off without a second's hesitation then.

Suzaku found a chair nearby the operating room in which Lelouch was going to be, and rested his head against the wall slowly and delicately. The wall did, unfortunately, still feel uncomfortable despite his slow approach, and he sighed in the discomfort.

He also couldn't help but be lulled to sleep by the dangerously stale hospital aura.

* * *

"Kururugi? Kururugi?" Suzaku's eyes fluttered open, and the first thing the thought of (besides his terrible headache) was Lelouch.

"Lelouch? Is he-?" Suzaku said, trailing off as he realized he'd fallen asleep outside the operating room and the doctor had woken him up.

"Don't worry, everything's gone smoothly. She's extremely healthy as well, a great turnout for a medicine-induced pregnancy." Suzaku's breath caught in his breath.

"She?" The doctor nodded, and Suzaku took a minute to let it sink in. "So he was right all that time." He laughed and deemed that he probably looked borderline crazy, so refrained himself from talking to his own head.

"She was born two weeks prematurely, however," Suzaku's breath caught in his throat at the realization, "but that happens often, even in normal circumstances. At a first glance she seems to be fine, but we don't want to take any chances." Suzaku let out his held breath in relief and smiled.

"I have to go attend to other patients, but Lelouch is in the room you were in originally, 214." Suzaku nodded his thanks and took his time stretching his neck as the doctor rushed off into another room. He pulled himself to his feet and made his way down the long hallways to where Lelouch was purportedly residing.

Suzaku tip-toed into the room and sat at the seat he'd previously pulled out of position, but his efforts were in vain as Lelouch covered his mouth as he yawned and pulled himself up carefully. "Hi." Lelouch spoke, turning his head to face Suzaku.

"Hey," Suzaku laughed, pushing Lelouch's dampened hair from his face. "So how've you been?"

"Alright, but I won't be once the anesthesia wears off." Lelouch said softly. "You're exhausted, I hear." Lelouch reminded him, one eyebrow up. Suzaku sighed.

"Yes, I am, and now my neck hurts," He complained, rubbing at the designated area with a twitching eye, "but shouldn't I be the one taking care of you?"

"Sorry, and I'm just fine at the moment." Lelouch whispered before turning and looking at the clock. "What should we name her?"

"Well, I'm not sure." Suzaku told him, lying in bed next to him without disturbing his position. "You're the one who insisted we wait until she was born to decide."

"I know." Lelouch whined, overdramatic. He laughed and raised his right hand to his forehead, covering his eyes. "I'll have to stay here for a few more days, I think."

"And I'll be here the whole time." Suzaku said before standing and leaning over Lelouch, holding his hand in front of his eyes as he kissed him on the lips. Lelouch pulled away with his eyebrows raised and mouth turned down.

"No, you don't have to stay here, this place is terrible." Lelouch growled, trying his hardest to have authority, which was proving to be difficult as he lay nearly unconscious in a hospital bed.

"Yes, I do. What am I supposed to do at home all day?" Suzaku said, proving a good point.

"I don't know, not be here?" Lelouch argued, biting his lip. He knew he wasn't going to win this one. His lack of usual concentration was one of the side effects of the medicines being dripped into his bloodstream by IV.

"What are they doing to her right now?" Suzaku asked after a few moments, redirecting the conversation upon Lelouch's apparent defeat.

"I don't know. They didn't tell me when we could see her again." Lelouch said through a sigh, sorely disappointed. Suzaku pushed a button upon the wall to call a nurse, who came and answered their question.

"They're probably just taking quick tests right now. Don't worry, they'll give her to you before tomorrow." Suzaku glanced at the clock- it was nearly ten o' clock at night. Lelouch could not hold back another sigh.

"Impatient, aren't we?" Suzaku chuckled, and the nurse smiled and excused herself. "Why don't you rest? I'll wake you when it's time." It took quite a bit of convincing—or manipulation, as Lelouch saw it—to get him to calm down and eventually fall asleep.

"It's been a long day, huh?" Suzaku whispered as he held his lips upon Lelouch's forehead, kissed it, and swept fly-away strands of hair from his face delicately.

Suzaku fell asleep collapsed beside Lelouch on the bed, and the nurse let them be, to give them their daughter the next morning.

* * *

I hope the lacking detail over the festival doesn't totally enrage you. Basically it was used as a plot opening, heheh. If enough people wish for it, I could always include it in my continuation fanfiction after this is finished in a much more detailed, entertaining form? Let me know.

Curse you Suzaku, falling asleep at the worst possible time! Wow, only two breaks in this chapter - rather rare for me. Again, please leave a review if you can. Are you surprised this isn't a cliffhanger ending? I thought it'd be mean to leave off on a painful note, since this update took longer than the rest. I hope everyone is having a wonderful vacation! Good bye for now! The next chapter will most likely be the very last and will probably take longer as well. I promise once more that it will be finished within three weeks.

_Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


	12. Finale: The Beautiful, Unexpected Gift

Oooooh man, you guys, you have no idea how nervous I feel about this chapter! It's important and big and AH! Stressful. I'm so sorry it's taken me so flipping long. I still don't have it exactly how I want it, but I hope you are all at least okay with it. I've beat it up so much I don't think I can do much more. Seriously, when I first wrote it, I loved it, then I came back to it and didn't like it, then I left it alone for a while and loved it again, so I'm leaving it! Frustrating. Just to give a warning, it's extremely sappy, just like everything else in this fanfiction, but more concentrated!

I really hope the name is acceptable to you, too. It's not traditional French (I guess the only 'French' thing about it is its spelling, eheheh!), but when I found the name it really struck me as a nice one. Feel free to complain if you don't like it too, but I don't think I'll be changing it any time soon.

(And by the way, I'm totally guessing on a lot of the hospital stuff here. Unfortunately I haven't the experience, sorry. Oh, and excuse me for twisting canon a bit when it came to the naming process. I thought it'd be cooler that way! This is already pretty AU anyway, eheh.)

Anyway, hope the name or anything else doesn't deter you from reading, please do enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 12- The Beautiful, Unexpected Gift**

"Suzaku!" Lelouch whined as he pushed Suzaku's shoulder, harsh enough to awaken him.

"Mhm?" He heard Suzaku mumble from beneath his pillow, and Lelouch yanked it from beneath him.

"You never woke me up!" Lelouch nearly yelled, obviously quite angry. The fire dancing in his eyes was proof enough.

Suzaku had to pull himself out of the hole he'd just dug himself. "Well, you needed sleep." That was the best argument he could conjure on the spot. Perhaps when accompanied with something heartfelt and sappy, he could pull it off. "We also can ask for her and get her in here at any time we want now." He told him, a sweet smile gracing his face.

Lelouch was the one to make the first move, which was rare and caught Suzaku a bit off-guard when he felt Lelouch's lips crashing onto his own, nearly desperate. Suzaku moaned and returned it, holding his face in his hands as he released quickly. He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What?" Lelouch muttered, averting his gaze. Suzaku laughed.

"It was just unexpected, sorry." He apologized, and finally removed his hands from cupping Lelouch's face to call a nurse. Upon asking the near-immediate service about where the ward was that allegedly held their daughter, they were told quick directions.

"You should be alright by now; it's been at least twelve hours, right?" They both nodded. The nurse wheeled in a wheelchair for Lelouch and briskly took off back into the maternity ward. They took their time getting Lelouch comfortably positioned in the wheelchair before Suzaku started pushing him down the halls, following the signs they'd been directed to follow.

"We can start thinking of names once we see her, right?" Suzaku nearly whined, and Lelouch nodded. He must have been nervous, because his hands were slightly clenched. Suzaku put a comforting hand upon his shoulder, and he felt Lelouch's stress melt out of his muscles almost instantly. "We'll be fine, Lelouch." Another nod.

"Last name?" The nurse they'd consulted about bringing her out had asked without bothering with greetings at all.

"Lamperouge." Lelouch nearly whispered. The nurse went into the room and started sifting through the many newborns' files. Suzaku's breath nearly stopped when he saw her pause at one of the babies—a baby girl.

The nurse smiled and picked her up, and Suzaku nearly had some sort of attack right there. Unfortunately, he didn't quite know what it was he was feeling, but he was almost glad Lelouch was too far below the window to see the action. She brought her out in a pink fleece blanket, and he could swear he heard Lelouch stop breathing too.

The nurse handed her to Lelouch, who was in some state of shock at the moment. "Lelouch?" Suzaku whispered, trying to snap him out of it.

Lelouch looked up and smiled so wide his face might fall in two pieces, giving Suzaku a clear shot of their baby's face.

"My God…" Suzaku barely spoke, "She's beautiful." Suzaku always heard older women say that every person thinks their babies are beautiful regardless, but he could swear she was an angel. He understood the cooing mothers and proud fathers he'd seen as a child now.

"I-I know." He heard Lelouch say as he turned back to her and let one of his fingers stroked her face, and he could swear he could hear him sniffling.

"Lelouch, are you crying?" Suzaku asked, laughing.

"S-shut up! Don't try to tell me you're not." Lelouch fought back without showing him his face, and Suzaku couldn't fight with that, as he could feel the tears welling up in his eyes.

"Can we take her back to the room?" Suzaku asked the nurse, and she nodded with a smile on her face, as she'd just watched the display. Suzaku began to slowly wheel them back to Lelouch's room, and he thought he could hear Lelouch's voice whispering in their daughter's ear.

They made it back to Lelouch's room in one piece. Suzaku spun around the wheelchair and picked up his entire family in his two arms, placing them securely upon the hospital bed and sitting, for he could no longer stand.

Suzaku caught Lelouch's gaze and they stared into each other's eyes, comatose with the sudden reality check that was squirming in Lelouch's arms. They were broken from their trance when she made some sort of squeaking shriek, and both their eyes landed on hers. She looked up at them so purely then, and Suzaku watched as Lelouch smiled, took her tiny fist and held it in his own.

"Well, hello there." He breathed as he kissed her tiny fingers, his lips larger than her entire hand. She squeaked again as she stared with her mouth parted, her eyes squinting from the action. Lelouch's eyes were wide but he was smiling, and Suzaku knew that he was just as scared as he was.

"Names, names…" Suzaku heard Lelouch mumbling, a troubling look taking over his face, and their baby noticed. Her expression disappeared too as she simply stared into his violet eyes, intrigued.

"You'll be much better at that; I'm not any good at anything but Japanese." Suzaku told him, and Lelouch's attention was finally severed from their daughter's face and whipped up to him.

"You can help me still." Lelouch said, his voice much softer than it had previously been. The instinct had already settled on him, and Suzaku had to hold back the urge to chuckle. "You should get to hold her too." Lelouch said, motioning over with his hand.

Suzaku was handed her delicately, and he was immediately drawn to her face. "She has a really strong grip." He said, chuckling as she curled her fingers tightly around his own by instinct.

Lelouch's eyebrows indented and his signature thinking expression turned on. Suzaku took this as a chance to start playing with combinations.

"Ara, Are, Ari…" He muttered, thinking hard on each sound as to which felt right. "I'm sorry," speaking as he grinned sheepishly, "I'm still thinking in a Japanese name mindset."

Lelouch sighed as Suzaku trailed off on his suggestions. "We can try more later, you know."

Suzaku pulled his finger from their daughter's hand and placed it upon her nose. "We'll think of something soon, we promise."

* * *

It was inevitable that Milly and her Council gang would invite themselves into Lelouch and Suzaku's hospital room, and Lelouch had almost counted the hours as he waited. The foreboding was just so great he couldn't leave it alone as he glanced at the door nervously every time a nurse came to check in on him.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku had asked of him as he saw a troubled look spread onto Lelouch's face, probably let through his facial expression barrier accidentally.

"When do we get her again?" He asked, longing so powerful in his voice.

"Can't you just relax and rest up like a normal person? You were never really normal, actually, I take that back." A pillow flew by Suzaku's face. "And you're still terrible at throwing and aiming." Another pillow and a snarling glare, but it was met with not even half of its usual pump.

As if on cue, in burst the Student Council- well, the girls anyway.

"Lulu! Why couldn't you wait until after the festival to make a fuss?" Milly whined.

"The baby went into distress early." Lelouch muttered.

"That counts as making a fuss, Mister!" She argued, her eyes furious. "Ruining my plans day in and day out; you live to ruin parties!" She nearly screeched. Shirley literally was hiding behind her as she scolded him for something Suzaku definitely deemed to be impossible to control.

Shirley took the silence as a chance to swipe out from beneath Milly's outstretched dramatic arms and sit at Lelouch's bedside. "Have you gotten any names yet?" She asked, eyes shimmering excitedly.

"No, not really." Suzaku said with a sigh.

"Well," Shirley began as she pointed at the door, "we have someone who wants to help!" She jumped up and opened the door in question to reveal Nunnally, with Sayoko behind her wheelchair.

"Hello, Nunnally." Lelouch said, a bright smile on his face now. "I'm sorry we left without warning last night."

"Onii-sama, you were going to the hospital! You're allowed to leave without warning in that situation." She acted troubled, but she still had an angelic smile on her face. "How is he or she?"

"Just fine, but we haven't seen her much recently." Lelouch responded politely, but it was matched with a competitive smirk. "And I was right, it was a girl." He boasted gently.

"Anyway, I have names to discuss with you!" Nunnally smiled, ignoring his later response and pointing to a list Sayoko must have written down for her of names she'd accumulated in secret over the past several months. "I know you said not to think of names, but I couldn't help myself with all of my extra time to spare! However," Nunnally began with a smirk that everyone was surprised to see on her face, "you are incredibly lucky that you were right that it was a girl, or I would have been no good help at all!"

Lelouch chuckled at her comment and allowed her to come over to his bedside. Everyone excluding Nunnally, Sayoko, Suzaku and Lelouch was silently asked to leave. They did as such, and Nunnally waited until the door clicked shut to continue.

"I went through our family records to see if there were some nice names in there, which there were." Nunnally stated, and she nodded to Sayoko, who began to read some aloud.

Sayoko cleared her throat. "Aaralyn su Britannia was the forty-seventh Holy Britannian Emperor's Queen and first Imperial Consort. She was very beautiful and wise."

"Hmm," Lelouch audibly thought, "it's very pretty, but I'm not quite sure." Sayoko nodded and went to the next name.

"Your great-great grandmother was named Adele Lamperouge, from your mother's side."

"Adele…" Lelouch thought on it hard.

"I'm not sure why, but it doesn't seem right either." Suzaku added, and Lelouch agreed.

"Your father's great great grandfather had a sister named Faye." Sayoko suggested, even if she sorely doubted Lelouch would agree.

"I don't want my daughter to have anything to do with him." Lelouch grimaced, and Sayoko nodded, understanding.

"There is only one more name left." Nunnally jumped in and took Sayoko's place, seemingly knowing the names by heart. "Mother had a sister once, did you know that, Onii-sama?" Lelouch shook his head as she spoke. "Mother had a younger sister, who passed away at three years old when Mother was seven. Her name was Avarielle."

"Avarielle..?" Lelouch whispered to himself. He felt a strange feeling in his stomach as he realized that he had a family member he hadn't previously known about. He couldn't remember his mother ever saying anything, but just thinking of his mother playing with a younger version of herself warmed his heart. He could even imagine her pristine innocent smile, even though he hadn't ever seen her before.

"That sounds beautiful…" Suzaku spoke under his breath.

"Do you think..?" Lelouch looked over to Suzaku, excitement in his eyes as he didn't feel the need to finish his sentence. They could both feel something about the name that sat right in their hearts.

"Perhaps, yes." Suzaku said with a smile, and Lelouch wrapped his hand around his. "Do you agree, Nunnally?" Suzaku asked.

"I suggested it, didn't I?" Nunnally giggled, and she asked Sayoko to let the whole gang back into the room.

"So? Did you think of a name?" Shirley asked as soon as she jumped into the room, making the four of them chuckle at her impatience.

"Yes," Lelouch nearly whispered as the rest of them slid into the room, his eyes bright as he smiled up at them from his bed. "We'll name her Avarielle." Lelouch cursed himself for allowing tears to well up in his eyes, for the second time.

"That's a beautiful name." Shirley said, agreeing.

"I doubt either of you boys thought that one up, so good job, Nunnally!" Milly said, sending Lelouch specifically an evil smirk. "So, when do we see the pretty lady?"

"We don't get to see her again until later today, I'm sorry." Lelouch told them, and he watched as Shirley's face fell along with Nunnally's.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Lelouch said, attempting to reassure the obviously downed posse, "You'll get your fill of her when she gets home, I promise." He smiled, and Shirley giggled, confusing him just slightly. "What?" He asked.

"You are so girlie right now, Lulu." She said with her hand covering her face. Lelouch wanted to protest and opened his mouth to speak, but found he couldn't quite think of a witty response before Milly took her turn.

"Maybe you should tone the maternal instincts down a bit." She said, teasing with a wink.

"Okay, let's file out now!" Suzaku herded them out as quickly as possible; he could nearly see the steam pumping out of his fiancé's ears. Sayoko wheeled Nunnally out quickly, catching the vibes. Milly and Shirley put up quite a fight, but he managed to ward them off. He leaned against the finally closed door, nearly panting. He then turned his attention back to Lelouch.

"Why can't Milly just come, say 'hi' and leave?" Lelouch groaned, and Suzaku laughed.

"It's in her nature to destroy your expectations." He replied, his voice too calm for Lelouch's comfort.

"Can't you just say 'I don't know', kiss me and calm me down?" Lelouch pouted.

"Are you demanding I do so then?"

"No, the purpose of that was for you to have done it spontaneously!"

"My honest opinion will crush you," Suzaku warned, walking back to Lelouch's bedside fluidly, but with hesitation in his eyes, "but I think you've gone cra—"

"Then please don't tell me, Suzaku!"

"How does that make any sense at all?" Suzaku was by now too thoroughly confused to keep up the light banter.

"It does." Lelouch scowled, but Suzaku was unfazed as he slid next to him on the hospital bed. Suzaku kissed him sincerely then, holding Lelouch's hair in his fingers.

"I'm sorry, love." Suzaku whispered on his lips, but when Lelouch tried to catch more kisses he pulled away.

"I know you are." Lelouch could not help but smile, despite the fact that he was both angry and taken advantage of in the past few minutes.

"Shall we take our afternoon nap then?" Suzaku asked, wrapping his arms around Lelouch's waist and holding his lips to his neck as he spoke in a hushed tone. "I think your medications have messed with your brain a bit too much."

"Alright." He heard Lelouch mumble.

"It wasn't all bad. Our daughter has a pending name now, you know, because of Milly's visit." Suzaku whispered in Lelouch's ear.

"Avarielle Lamperouge." Lelouch responded with a smile, and they both fell asleep within the following half hour.

* * *

"Suzaku," Lelouch began, scowling, "It was entirely possible for me to walk through the doorway and sit myself down."

"Not in my house." Suzaku argued illegitimately, and he laughed as he watched Lelouch flounder about as he laid him down on the main couch.

"This isn't your house, it's mine!" He argued back, eyes blazing.

"Technically, it's Milly's family's house. So neither of us has any claims." Suzaku pointed out as he flicked Lelouch in the middle of his forehead. He sincerely loved annoying his fiancé out of his mind.

Lelouch was honestly too exhausted from his (mostly) sleep cycle in the hospital to really put up a good fight as he was laid on the couch. It was so relieving, to finally be back at home. He groaned audibly and rested his arm across his forehead.

"Have you contacted the school?"

"Yes," Suzaku assured him for the umpteenth time, "and you will not be attending classes for a full six months. After that, you'll have to at least alternate days with me so you can finish school." Another groan and Suzaku hushed him as he pulled a light blanket over Lelouch from his feet to his nose.

Lelouch's eyes fluttered open as he wrinkled his nose and pulled the blanket down from his face. He repositioned himself to allow for Suzaku to sit at the end of the couch, but it was to no avail as the Japanese boy pulled him up, sat himself down and laid Lelouch's head upon his chest. A deep exasperated sigh followed. "I suppose I'll just have to accept your babying since I am in no place to revolt."

Suzaku laughed heartily. "As long as I am willing, you'll never escape it. Enjoy it for a while." A devilish smirk was placed upon his lips, and Lelouch's immediate reaction was to sigh into his frown and slouch back into Suzaku's frame.

"Dear God, Suzaku, I'm scared." Lelouch finally said, biting his lower lip. Suzaku raised his eyebrow but did not allow Lelouch to see his own worry as his arms around Lelouch's chest squeezed their grip. Lelouch didn't admit to feeling emotions like that very often.

"I know, but we'll be alright. We've always made it through things before." Suzaku reassured him, truth embedded in his voice. Lelouch caught the confidence and relaxed even more, allowing Suzaku to wonder just how tense Lelouch could be if he was still able to let go his strain.

"I'll believe you." Lelouch mumbled as he let his head fall unrestrained onto Suzaku's shoulder, his eyes closed. However, his peace did not last more than ten minutes as the equilibrium was shattered and he found himself up in the air once more, Suzaku's strong arms spreading heat behind his knees and around his back.

Lelouch did not fight as Suzaku carried him slowly up the stairs and into bed. He faked being completely unconscious as he felt Suzaku put him down on the bed and reposition his limbs to a less awkward position. Strong, thick sheets were pulled just over his shoulders and a shift in the weight on the mattress occurred as Suzaku also laid down in the bed to rest. Unfortunately, as the seconds passed Lelouch's façade was becoming less and less fraud and he found it hard to keep himself conscious; the last thing he could register was Suzaku's lips upon his forehead, wishing him sweet dreams in a soft whisper. He almost laughed at the tickling breeze Suzaku's breath had blown over his forehead as he spoke before going completely unconscious beside him.

* * *

Avarielle Lamperouge was brought home not a week later. Another last-minute party was held by the order of Miss Milly Ashford herself, and most if not all of Ashford's students attended. (Also, by the order of Miss Milly Ashford.) There were drinks and snacks and small conversations, anything you'd expect from a normal party; unfortunately _not_ to be expected from Milly Ashford.

"Milly, where's your usual array of mischief?" Lelouch asked, a smirk in his eyes but an innocent twitch of the mouth upon his lips whose paradox would have made anyone other than Milly shy away.

"I can't have much of a boisterous party when a newborn is nearby on campus!" She said with a wink and a beaming smile that made Lelouch's expression relax into peace. "Where's your usual supply of inappropriate public behavior?" Milly asked, the same smirk Lelouch had previously worn stolen from his very face as a blush settled on his cheeks.

"M-Milly!" Lelouch could only manage to choke out in his sudden embarrassment.

"What?" Milly asked, fake innocence evident all over her facial features, "Suzaku loves snogging you in public places. I think it makes him feel like he has a hoarded treasure in you, when he can make sure people are looking as he does improper things to you in their faces." Milly continued much to Lelouch's humiliation, a finger poised on her lower lip.

As if to save the day, the missing link arrived at Lelouch's side with a drink in one hand and a cookie in another. Lelouch graciously took the offered glass and sat down upon a nearby ledge. He watched as Suzaku and Milly had some sort of hilarious conversation. Honestly, their combating charisma seemed to compete whenever they held casual exchange. Suzaku eventually, after worrying about his fiancé's disappearance, strode over to the edge of a fountain where Lelouch now sat with his half-empty glass.

"You okay?" He asked sincerely, but Lelouch looked up into his eyes for just a second before flashing back down to the ground.

"I'm alright." Lelouch responded as he twirled the liquid in his glass in a rotating circle. Suzaku's troubled look did not go away as Lelouch had wished and he sat beside him, snaking his fingers into Lelouch's.

"You don't look okay." Suzaku protested, and Lelouch sighed before giving up and resting his head on Suzaku's side.

"Then why did you ask if you knew the answer?" He muttered. Suzaku didn't have an answer, so they were engulfed in a silence interrupted only by the party's muffled noises. "I'm nervous about leaving her back at the house." Lelouch finally said through an exhale.

"Sayoko is perfectly capable of taking care of Ava, Lelouch. In fact, she's probably even safer with Sayoko than if you were home alone with her." Suzaku shot the last statement at Lelouch with a sneer, and the expected elbow-in-the-side did come as he expected. The disgruntled statement he had also prepared for had not come, however, and it was left at that in perfect silence; the noise from the party seemed to have been blocked out by magic.

"You want to go home?" Suzaku asked, and even though he didn't want to leave, when he saw Lelouch's frown and nod, he escorted the both of them out quickly. They took their time wandering through the grounds.

"The stars are pretty tonight." Suzaku said with a bright smile as he stopped walking and watched as Lelouch took a few extra steps before realizing Suzaku was no longer at his side, swung his gaze around and tilted his head in inquiry. The moon cast a milky glare on the curve of Lelouch's face and spilled into his eyes, making them shine almost unnaturally. The view made Suzaku unknowingly hold his breath.

"They are pretty, I suppose." Lelouch responded, lifting his gaze up so he almost felt dizzy from the dazzling view of the navy blue sky. The moon's illumination slipped over his nose and into his silhouette like an outline. Suzaku followed him and stared up into the twinkling stars, his fingers mingling with Lelouch's as they simply stood there in silence for uncounted minutes.

"I do believe we should get back home," Lelouch said, tearing his gaze from the sky, "Nunnally may get worried." Suzaku nodded and started his stride, allowing Lelouch to fall into his step as they walked down the paved walkway to their suite, their arms still linked and their faces still enlightened by the moon.

"Ava? You have a nickname for her now?" Lelouch asked after a while, interrupting the silence.

"I can barely pronounce Avarielle, you know that." Suzaku said with a nervous chuckle.

"Should we teach her Japanese?" Lelouch asked of him.

"Of course, she lives in Japan, doesn't she?"

"Should she know of my true identity?"

"Every girl dreams to be a princess, Lelouch, I just think we should wait until she understands that it's a secret."

"Okay…should we move out of Ashford?"

Suzaku stopped playing along now. "Move out? Now?"

"Yeah," Lelouch looked down, "I should have enough credits to graduate high school now anyway, even without the last six months of Senior year. We could definitely afford our own house on your salary combined with the Ashfords' incentives."

"But what about Nunnally?" Suzaku asked. Lelouch closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

"Nunnally's old enough to be okay without me. She's definitely grown up considerably, don't you think? She could maybe even move into the girls' dorms and live a less sheltered life without me just as easily, so long as she had roommates who were willing to assist her." Suzaku squeezed Lelouch's hand. "It'll be hard for me, but I think it would help her and me in the future."

Suzaku turned and held Lelouch in a long hug once he stopped talking. "Let's wait a year or two, until Nunnally has nearly left school. I know it would destroy you if you just left her here all alone to finish school." Suzaku suggested.

"Alright." Lelouch sighed, secretly relieved at Suzaku's idea and he turned himself out of Suzaku's embrace to face their front door. "Are you ready for this?" He asked Suzaku.

"I'm pretty sure I am. You?" Lelouch nodded. They walked in sync with each other's footsteps up the front stairs and opened the door together. "We'll be okay, I promise." Suzaku looked at Lelouch as he looked back at him, and they each smiled at the other. They would be just fine.

* * *

Awww, a sappy ending! Cue up the random moe ending song!

Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting over the months! It's been a pleasure writing for you, and don't forget to check in with me for post-pregnancy tidbits! I wish you all well in your lives!

And, finally, until next time,_ Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi._


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